What you should know about shaken baby syndrome

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man This week could mark the first person to be executed in the United States for murder linked to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

The Texas Board of Parole voted 6-0 on Wednesday against recommending a pardon for Robert Robersonwho is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday. The board also denied him a 180-day reprieve.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott can grant a pardon only after receiving a recommendation from the board, which has come under public bipartisan pressure in recent weeks to save Roberson's life.

RobersonThe 57-year-old is to be executed for the murder of his two-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis in 2002. His lawyers have asked the US Supreme Court to stay the execution.

Roberson has long maintained his innocence. His lawyers and a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others do not deny that head injuries and other injuries caused by child abuse are real. But they argue his conviction was based on flawed and now outdated scientific evidence and say new evidence shows Curtis died as a result of severe pneumonia.

But prosecutors contend Roberson's new evidence does not refute her claim that Curtis died from her father's injuries.

Roberson's planned execution reignited the debate over shaken baby syndrome. On one side of the debate are lawyers and some in the medical and scientific communities who argue that the “shocked baby” diagnosis is flawed and has led to wrongful convictions. On the other side are prosecutors and… medical societies from the United States and around the world who say the diagnosis is valid, scientifically proven and the leading cause of fatal head injuries in children under 2 years old.

Here's what you should know about the highly scrutinized diagnosis ahead of Roberson's scheduled execution:

What is Shaken Baby Syndrome?

The diagnosis refers to a severe brain injury caused when a child's head is injured by shaking or other violent impact, such as being thrown against a wall or thrown to the floor, usually by an adult caregiver, Dr . Suzanne Haney, a child abuser pediatrician and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.

The term was changed in 2009 to “abusive head trauma,” a broader diagnosis, Haney said.

According to the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, approximately 1,300 cases of shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma are reported in the United States each year.

What is the Shaken Baby Syndrome Debate?

Critics claim doctors have focused on concluding child abuse due to shaken baby syndrome when a triad of symptoms – bleeding around the brain, swelling of the brain and bleeding in the eyes – are detected. Critics say doctors haven't taken into account that things like short head-impact falls and naturally occurring illnesses like pneumonia could mimic an inflicted head injury.

Roberson's lawyers and other supporters are not saying that child abuse does not occur or that shaking a baby is safe, said Kate Judson, executive director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that seeks to improve the reliability of forensic science Proofs.

“This case is about whether someone was misdiagnosed and justice was not served,” Judson said.

While Haney declined to comment on Roberson's case, she said there was no disagreement within the vast majority of the medical community about the validity and science behind the diagnosis.

Haney said doctors don't just focus on a triad of symptoms to determine child abuse, but instead look for all sorts of things, including any medical conditions that might have caused the injuries.

“I am concerned about resistance to abusive head trauma because a diagnosis will compromise existing prevention efforts, thereby leading to more children being injured,” Haney said.

Judson said she believes doctors in Roberson's case did not consider all possible causes, including illness, to explain what happened to his daughter and used the triad of symptoms to focus only on child abuse.

What concerns are Roberson's supporters raising?

Roberson's lawyers say he was wrongfully arrested and later convicted after taking his daughter to a hospital. She had fallen out of bed at her home in the East Texas city of Palestine after being seriously ill for a week.

New evidence gathered since his trial in 2003 shows that his daughter died of undiagnosed pneumonia that developed into sepsis and was likely accelerated by medications that should not have been prescribed to her and prevented her from breathing made it more difficult, said Gretchen Sween, Roberson's attorney.

The Anderson County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted Roberson, said in court documents that after a hearing in 2022 to consider the new evidence, a judge rejected theories that pneumonia and other illnesses caused Curtis' death.

What have courts said about shaken baby syndrome?

In recent years, courts across the country have overturned convictions or dropped shaken baby syndrome-related charges, including in California, Ohio, Massachusetts And Michigan.

In a ruling last week in another shaken baby syndrome case in Dallas County, the Texas Court of Appeals ordered a new trial after determining that scientific advances related to the diagnosis would now likely lead to an acquittal in the case .

But the appeals court has repeatedly rejected Roberson's request to stay his execution, most recently on Friday.

At least eight people have been sentenced to death in the United States for shaken baby syndrome, said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Two of those eight were exonerated and Roberson is the only one given execution dates.

“According to the National Exoneration Registry, at least 30 people across the country have been exonerated based on this discredited scientific theory,” Maher said.

But Danielle Vazquez, executive director of the Utah-based National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, said a Research article 2021 found that 97% of the more than 1,400 shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma convictions from 2008 to 2018 were upheld and that such convictions were rarely overturned based on medical evidence.

Vazquez said her organization is concerned that doubts about the diagnosis could lead some parents or caregivers to incorrectly believe that shaking a baby is not harmful.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70