Texas man faces execution after clemency plea fails
Al Jazeera
Robert Roberson was convicted of killing his daughter and is now set to be first execution in a shaken baby syndrome case.
Texas is due to execute a man for murdering his two-year-old daughter, despite doubts about his guilt.
Robert Roberson is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday after Texas’s Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected his plea for clemency.
If the execution proceeds, he will be the first person in the United States to face capital punishment for a murder conviction linked to the controversial shaken baby syndrome diagnosis.
Roberson has maintained his innocence in the death of his daughter, Nikki Curtis, and the lead detective investigating the case has also come to his defence, urging the state to call off the execution.
Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, could grant a one-time 30-day reprieve for Roberson’s set execution, but he cannot give full clemency without the board of parole’s recommendation.
