Roberson’s Case Follows Three-State Science Rulings

Robert Roberson’s lawyers are watching decisions outside Texas with close attention. California and Georgia judges overturned convictions after medical advances raised doubts about shaken baby syndrome. New Jersey’s highest court went further and barred that testimony from criminal trials. Roberson is asking Texas to take the newer science seriously.

Roberson, 59, was sentenced to death in 2003 by an Anderson County jury for the murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki. The prosecution relied partly on a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. The theory has faced growing scrutiny from experts. That uncertainty has delayed every execution date for Roberson, including dates set for October 2024 and October 2025.

An October 2025 stay followed Andrew Roark’s Dallas County exoneration. Roark’s conviction was set aside because the science had changed, and witnesses might have testified differently in 2024. In Smith County, Judge Austin Reeve Jackson has not decided whether Roberson should get an evidentiary hearing on whether the changed science could affect his guilty verdict.

In November 2025, Roberson’s lawyers filed a notice based on New Jersey’s highest court. A 6-1 ruling said shaken baby syndrome, also known as abusive head trauma, was not generally accepted in the biomechanical community and was unreliable for criminal trials. The state public defender’s office called the ruling important because courts need strong scientific support. Roberson’s attorney, Gretchen Sween, said the ruling goes beyond what he is asking Texas to do. He is seeking a new trial that reflects how medical understanding has changed since 2003.

Sween pointed to details she says link New Jersey’s reasoning to Nikki’s case. One finding said doctors should first check a shaken child’s neck and spinal cord for injuries. Nikki had no neck or spinal cord injuries, according to the filing. Sween also stressed that Nikki was a toddler weighing close to 30 pounds, not an infant, and that the diagnosis had not been validated for a child with her age and size.

Georgia added another comparison. Danyel Smith received a life sentence after the death of his 2-month-old son, Chandler. A judge vacated his conviction in July, finding that changes in the science weakened the basis for the verdict. Roberson’s lawyers noted that Smith and Roberson were both convicted in 2003 in cases involving shaken baby syndrome, were male caregivers, and took injured children to hospitals for help. Their filings are persuasive authority, not binding Texas law, but they give Judge Jackson possible guidance on whether a hearing makes sense.