Robert Roberson is awaiting a decision that could halt the execution of the death sentence by a governor State of TexasGreg Abbott, or the US Supreme Court, which are the last two means to stop the implementation.
Roberson, 57, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville.
Roberson was convicted of murdering his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in 2002 City of Palestine In East Texas.
Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence, with support from some prominent Republican lawmakers and the lead investigator in the case.
“He’s an innocent man, and we’re about to kill him for something he didn’t do,” said Brian Wharton, the lead investigator in the case, according to the Associated Press.
Roberson’s scheduled execution has renewed controversy over “Shaken baby syndrome“, known in the medical community as “Injurious head trauma“.
Roberson’s lawyers, as well as Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others, say his conviction was based on faulty and now outdated scientific evidence.
The diagnosis indicates a serious infection Brain It occurs when a child’s head is hit by shaking or other violent impact, such as hitting a wall or throwing him to the ground.
Roberson’s supporters do not deny that the head injuries and other injuries resulting from child abuse are real, but they maintain that doctors misdiagnosed Curtis’ injuries as related to shaken baby syndrome, and that new evidence showed that the girl died of complications related to severe pneumonia.
Roberson’s lawyers say he was wrongly arrested and later convicted after his daughter was taken to the hospital. The lawyers added that the child fell from the bed in Roberson’s home after being seriously ill for a week.
