Texas execution candidate sparks debate over shaken baby syndrome convictions

PHOENIX (AZFamily) – The execution of a Texas man scheduled for this fall has reignited the debate over “shaken baby syndrome,” a medical diagnosis used in forensics that at least one judge likened to “junk science.”

The Arizona Justice Project says it is reviewing three cases in which Arizona citizens are currently serving long prison sentences because they believe the forensic investigations were flawed and discredited.

The science behind shaken baby syndrome, also known as abuse-induced head trauma, is receiving renewed attention due to the planned execution of Robert Roberson in Texas.

If the execution goes ahead as planned in October, it would be the first-ever conviction of a shaken baby, according to the Innocence Project.

Roberson was convicted of murdering his two-year-old daughter in 2002. Even the lead investigator in the case is now convinced that it was not him.

“If we were to try the same case today, there is no way we could get a conviction based on what we know today, based on the facts we worked with,” said Brian Wharton, a former Palestine Police Department detective, in a video produced by the Innocence Project.

Unless the courts or Governor Greg Abbott intervene, Roberson is scheduled to die by lethal injection on October 17.

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, nine people nationwide have been acquitted of murder or child abuse charges related to a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis since 2019. At least 11 people have been acquitted of the charges.

Shaken Baby Syndrome emerged as a medical hypothesis in the 1970s. At the time, doctors believed that if a baby had specific brain swelling and retinal hemorrhage, but no other obvious external injuries, there was only one explanation – the child must have been violently shaken.

Lindsay Herf, executive director of the Arizona Justice Project, said in most cases the adult caregiver is alone and there are no other witnesses.

“It’s a disproven theory,” Herf said.

Herf said studies of crash tests and other types of impacts began around 2001 and radically changed the understanding of the underlying science.

Biomechanical studies have shown that deficits can cause the same “triad” of injuries that doctors previously thought impossible.

The scientists also found that the symptoms can be caused by a number of medical problems, including birth trauma, autoimmune diseases, severe pneumonia or viral infections.

In 2012, the Arizona Justice Project helped rehabilitate a Valley man named Drayton Witt, who had spent more than a decade in prison for a wrongful conviction of shaken baby syndrome.

The lawyers demonstrated that the five-month-old baby had suffered complications from birth and had actually died from a catastrophic seizure.

In 2010, our cameras caught the hugs outside an Arizona courtroom after prosecutors dropped a death penalty charge against Lisa Randall, a Peoria daycare operator who was falsely accused of shaking a baby to death.

According to the National Registry, 32 people in 18 states have been acquitted of miscarriage of justice due to shaken baby syndrome since 1992.

Given the numerous scientific debates, the impending execution of Roberson has alarmed advocates of justice.

“If this execution takes place, there is a serious risk that an innocent man will be executed,” Herf said.

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