Texas court blocks execution of death row inmate Robert Roberson

Reality synchs with frequency.

Robert Roberson was to be executed Oct. 16, 2025

By Kayla Guo
Oct. 9, 2025

Truth and justice prevail

Death row inmate Robert Roberson is photographed through plexiglass at the TDCJ Polunsky Unit in Livingston on Dec. 19, 2023. Credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Innocence Project

Texas’ highest criminal court on Thursday blocked Robert Roberson’s execution a week before it was set to take place, sending his case back to trial court.

Roberson was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki, who was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome. He has maintained his innocence over more than 20 years on death row, with his attorneys arguing that the science behind Nikki’s shaken baby diagnosis no longer held up. He was scheduled to be executed on Oct. 16, which would have made him the first person in U.S. history put to death in a shaken baby syndrome case.

After previously denying his recent appeals, largely on procedural grounds, a 5-4 majority of the all-Republican Court of Criminal Appeals granted Roberson’s request for a stay of execution under Texas’ groundbreaking 2013 junk science law, which provides for a second look when the science driving a conviction has since been debunked. The law has never been successfully used to secure a new trial for a death row inmate, though Roberson could be the first if the trial court in Anderson County recommends that the evidence warrants one and the high court agrees.

In its order, the Court of Criminal Appeals cited its decision last year to overturn the shaken baby conviction of Dallas County man Andrew Roark, based on the evolving medical research on shaken baby diagnoses. The court exonerated Roark — in a case Roberson’s attorneys called “materially indistinguishable” from that of their client — a week before rejecting Roberson’s appeal on procedural grounds.

“That’s the insight we have today: There were enough members of the court who are troubled by the inconsistency between granting relief under [the junk science law] to Andrew Roark, but then denying it a week later to Robert Roberson,” Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, said in a press conference Thursday. “Roark changed the legal landscape in Texas, and should mean relief for Robert.”

The Court of Criminal Appeals did not decide on the merits of Roberson’s appeals, instead directing the trial court to consider whether he should be granted a new trial in light of the Roark decision. The court dismissed on procedural grounds Roberson’s other appeals claiming judicial misconduct in his trial and his actual innocence.

“There is a delicate balance and tension in our criminal justice system between the finality of judgment and its accuracy based on our ever-advancing scientific understanding,” Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Bert Richardson wrote in a concurring opinion. “A death sentence is clearly final and, once carried out, hindsight is useless.”

In his most recent appeals, Roberson’s attorneys presented fresh medical and expert opinions that concluded Nikki died of natural and accidental causes, echoing forensic input presented in his earlier filings.

Live links and more at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/09/robert-roberson-execution-blocked-texas-court-of-criminal-appeals/

Gratitude to everyone

Thank you to everyone who prayed and moved your feet to save the life of Robert Roberson. https://www.ourgreaterdestiny.ca/p/mass-public-rebuttal-required-to

Without prejudice and without recourse
Doreen Agostino
Our Greater Destiny Blog
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