This is an English translation of an opinion letter we published this week in the French national newspaper "Le Monde" concerning the upcoming execution of Robert Roberson in Texas, scheduled for October 17th.
According to the Innocence Project: [1]
> Robert Roberson is an innocent father with autism who has spent over 20 years on death row in Texas for a crime that never occurred. Mr. Roberson was committed to being a present father to his chronically ill two-year-old daughter Nikki when he was granted custody in November 2001. Tragically, Nikki passed away from prior medical conditions after a short fall from bed, and Mr. Roberson was wrongfully convicted of her death.
> Mr. Roberson was a special education student when he dropped out of school after the ninth grade. He had undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder. Hospital staff did not know Mr. Roberson had autism and judged his response to his daughter’s grave condition as lacking emotion. Mr. Roberson was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to death using a now-discredited version of the Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) hypothesis.
> The overwhelming medical and scientific evidence now shows that Nikki died of accidental and natural causes. Mr. Roberson’s innocence case is attracting growing and widespread support from eminent scientists, doctors, faith leaders, innocence groups, former federal judges, best-selling novelist John Grisham, and the lead detective who testified for the prosecution, who now believes he contributed to an innocent person being sent to death row.
See also this HN thread on a blog post I wrote last year about SBS. [2]
This is an English translation of an opinion letter we published this week in the French national newspaper "Le Monde" concerning the upcoming execution of Robert Roberson in Texas, scheduled for October 17th.
According to the Innocence Project: [1]
> Robert Roberson is an innocent father with autism who has spent over 20 years on death row in Texas for a crime that never occurred. Mr. Roberson was committed to being a present father to his chronically ill two-year-old daughter Nikki when he was granted custody in November 2001. Tragically, Nikki passed away from prior medical conditions after a short fall from bed, and Mr. Roberson was wrongfully convicted of her death.
> Mr. Roberson was a special education student when he dropped out of school after the ninth grade. He had undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder. Hospital staff did not know Mr. Roberson had autism and judged his response to his daughter’s grave condition as lacking emotion. Mr. Roberson was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to death using a now-discredited version of the Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) hypothesis.
> The overwhelming medical and scientific evidence now shows that Nikki died of accidental and natural causes. Mr. Roberson’s innocence case is attracting growing and widespread support from eminent scientists, doctors, faith leaders, innocence groups, former federal judges, best-selling novelist John Grisham, and the lead detective who testified for the prosecution, who now believes he contributed to an innocent person being sent to death row.
See also this HN thread on a blog post I wrote last year about SBS. [2]
[1] https://innocenceproject.org/petitions/justice-for-robert-ro...
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37650402