Execution of Man Convicted of Daughter’s 2002 Death Delayed Amid Dispute Over ‘Junk Science’ Law

Robert Roberson, 57, who was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, based on a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis, received a temporary stay of execution originally scheduled for October 24, 2024. Roberson maintains his innocence, and his legal team argues the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis, which formed the basis of his conviction, is now discredited. They suggest alternative explanations for Nikki’s death that were not considered at trial.

The Texas Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence requested the delay to allow additional testimony from Roberson, citing Article 11.073 of Texas law, also known as the “junk science” law. This statute permits post-conviction appeals if relevant new science emerges that was unavailable during the trial. Roberson’s advocates argue he qualifies for relief under this law, highlighting ongoing disputes regarding shaken baby syndrome’s validity.

The Texas Supreme Court was asked by the committee to halt the execution after the attorney general’s office sought to overturn a temporary restraining order from a lower court. The Office of the Texas Attorney General has since released the original autopsy report and other evidence to clarify what it calls “falsehoods” promoted by groups challenging the execution.

Details Provided by the Texas Attorney General

In 2002, two-year-old Nikki Curtis was brought to the hospital close to death with extensive bruising to her chin, face, ears, eyes, shoulder, and mouth. Emergency Room Nurse Andrea Sims, who saw Nikki before medical intervention, testified at trial that, in addition to the bruising, Nikki had a handprint on her face, and that the back of her skull was bruised and “mushy.” Robert Roberson, Nikki’s father, had a history of violently abusing his daughter, and witnesses testified in trial that they were afraid to leave Nikki alone with him because he would repeatedly “whip” her whenever the baby cried. Testimony showed that he often would strike Nikki “hard” with his hands, a board, or a paddle, and on at least one instance threw her off the bed. Robert Roberson’s own mother said at one time, “One of these days he’s going to kill her and it’s going to be too late for anyone to do anything about it.”

According to doctors testifying at the trial, Nikki died from substantial blunt force head injuries that clearly indicated the girl had been struck. The evidence of blunt force trauma precluded the possibility that the child died from being “shaken.” Nikki was abused by her father and died due to the trauma he inflicted. After hearing this evidence and countless hours of testimony about Roberson’s pattern of losing his temper and violently abusing his daughter, a jury of his peers convicted him of murder in 2003, sentencing Roberson to the death penalty for beating his own daughter so viciously that she died. The law in Texas is clear: the prosecution must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt as to every element of the offense as it is charged in the indictment. Roberson was charged with capital murder for intentionally and knowingly causing the death of a child by causing blunt force head injuries.

Dr. Jill Urban, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on the two-year-old’s corpse, testified during the trial using photographic evidence that Nikki’s head had been repeatedly struck leaving clear impact wounds totally incompatible with merely being violently shaken. Dr. Urban’s findings were reviewed by six supervising medical examiners at the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office, all of whom agreed and signed off on her autopsy report. In 2016, when Roberson’s case was being appealed, Dr. Urban unequivocally affirmed that she “quite clearly defined multiple impact sites to the head and ruled that the death was due to blunt force injuries.”

In addition to the medical evidence presented, Roberson repeatedly changed his story during the investigation and trial about what happened to Nikki, contradicting himself and demonstrably lying about the circumstances, his behavior, and the causes of his daughter’s condition. When Roberson brought the nearly lifeless Nikki to the hospital, he claimed to the nurses that she had merely fallen off the bed. Then he told different nurses that his daughter had hit her head on a table next to the bed. When questioned by the police, Roberson reverted back to the story that Nikki had simply fallen out of bed. Later, in his official statement to law enforcement, Roberson professed ignorance as to what caused the blunt force injuries to Nikki’s head and blamed his daughter for being clumsy and falling often.

Roberson also confessed to slapping his two-year-old daughter to “wake her up” before telling his girlfriend at the time, Teddie Cox, that Nikki had hit her head on “the brick” in the bedroom despite police noting that there was only carpet in the room. When Teddie Cox asked Roberson directly if he had killed Nikki, Teddie Cox testified that Roberson said, “that if he did do it, he don’t remember, that he snapped, and he don’t remember doing it.” Similarly, Roberson initially told Dr. Kelly Goodness—who was one of the defense’s own witnesses—that he did not remember what happened to Nikki but then later confessed that he had lost his temper and began abusing Nikki. The jury also heard that Roberson, who had over a dozen prior arrests, had strangled his ex-wife with a coat hanger, punched her in the face and broke her nose while she was pregnant, and beat her with a fireplace shovel. The jury also heard that Roberson was the girl’s sole caretaker for the very first time on the day that Nikki’s deadly injuries were inflicted, and he was displeased to be obligated to care for the child, according to his girlfriend at the time.

Further, according to a contemporaneous police report, Roberson admitted to his cellmate that he sexually assaulted Nikki. Roberson told him of “putting his [penis] in the baby’s mouth and rubbing his penis against her vagina.” The cellmate also said Roberson told him that when Roberson was upset with his female partner, he would take his anger out on Nikki. He told the cellmate of hitting Nikki on the back of her head with his hand and then dropping her on her head and leaving her on the floor.

Now, a coalition of activists and State legislators is interfering with the justice system in an unprecedented way in an attempt to stall or prevent Roberson’s execution. They have attempted to mislead the public by falsely claiming that Roberson was unfairly convicted through “junk science” concerning “shaken baby syndrome.”

Despite these eleventh-hour, one-sided, extrajudicial stunts that attempt to obscure the facts and rewrite his past, the truth remains:

• Robert Roberson murdered two-year-old Nikki by beating her so brutally that she ultimately died.
• The jury did not convict Roberson on the basis of “Shaken Baby Syndrome.” The “junk science” objection that has been used as a pretext to interfere with the proceedings has no basis in reality.
• Roberson was lawfully sentenced to death. He has exhausted every legally available appellate avenue.
• A few legislators have grossly interfered with the justice system by disregarding the separation of powers outlined in the State Constitution. They have created a Constitutional crisis on behalf of a man who beat his two-year-old daughter to death.

To read the original autopsy report, click here.

To read Dr. Jill Urban’s 2016 response to claims that Nikki died from being shaken, click here.

To see the attached exhibit explaining Roberson’s changing story, click here.

To see the attached exhibit explaining Roberson’s history of abuse, click here.