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The Texas "junk science" law



As I write these words, Robert Roberson still sits on death row.  But he is still alive, and another scheduled date for his execution is in the rear view mirror.  

This is what has so far prevented the execution of Roberson.

In 2013, Texas enacted a specific legal avenue allowing prisoners to challenge allegedly wrongful convictions by arguing that changes in the field of forensic science have undermined the conviction or, in the alternative have exonerated the prisoner completely.  This is popularly known as the "Junk Science Law" -- formally Article 11.073 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.

The "shaken baby syndrome" [or "abusive head trauma"] is the key here. A medical/physical fact like a bruise, a fever, a broken bone  is often consistent with several hypotheses about cause.  No trauma by itself tells us it was the consequence of abuse. That is an inference that, in a criminal trial, the finder of fact, paradigmatically the jury is supposed to draw. 

Jurors generally look to medical experts with regard to that inference.  As of 2002-03, many such experts believed that short falls, like the one Roberson described having happened to his daughters, could never cause severe injuries. And that shaking by a parent impatient over a baby's crying, could.  

The Texas court halting the planned October 16th execution date said, "[T]he scientific understanding of the Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) hypothesis that was used to accuse and convict [Roberson] in 2002-2003 has been entirely discredited. The new evidence includes new expert opinions and further changes in scientific understanding of SBS since this Court decided the 03 proceeding and even after this Court decided Ex Parte Roark, 707 S.W.3d 157 (Tex. Crim. App. 2024), a significant decision that has not yet been applied to Mr. Roberson’s very similar SBS case."

The full decision is available online: robert-roberson-motion-for-stay-of-execution.pdf 

Let's try to keep him alive and, better, get him a new trial. 




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