A Texas judge today scheduled a new execution date of October 16, 2025 for Robert Roberson, 58, who was convicted in 2003 of killing his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in a case fueled by what’s since been called “shaken baby syndrome.”
Roberson’s legal team and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and medical experts argue that fresh evidence - such as pathology reports linking Nikki’s death to pneumonia, sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and medical complications - undercuts the shaken-baby theory and casts doubt on his conviction.
Despite a last-minute stay in October 2024 and ongoing appeals, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office pushed for the new date, and Judge Austin Reeve Jackson ruled that “at some point we have to say the date needs to be set,” as the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals continues to review Roberson’s petition.
Roberson’s attorney, Gretchen Sween, denounced setting the date as “outrageous,” calling it a politically motivated rush to execution “while that new evidence of innocence is before the court.”
His supporters - including a former lead detective now backing his innocence, faith groups, author John Grisham, Phil McGraw, and lawmakers - are rallying for another stay or clemency, saying Texas should not execute what might be a grave miscarriage of justice.
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