Robert Roberson, Texas Death Row Inmate Many Believe Is Innocent, Faces New Execution Date

Robert Roberson is once again scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas for a crime many do not believe he committed. In fact, many people, myself included, believe no crime even happened.

Even Dr. Phil thinks he's innocent and has advocated strongly for him.

Who Is Robert Roberson, and Why Is He On Texas's Death Row?

Roberson is a 58-year-old man who has sat on Texas's Death Row for over two decades. According to the Innocence Project, he is intellectually disabled and on the Autism Spectrum.

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In January of 2002, he took his toddler daughter, Nikki, to Palestine Regional Medical Center with head trauma. The child had also been severely ill with vomiting, coughing, and diarrhea. Unfortunately, she died at the hospital.

Roberson took her to the doctor a week earlier with a high fever, and the child was prescribed a medication, Phenergan, that now carries a strong warning against prescribing to children.

She was also prescribed a cough syrup with codeine, an opiate that is now banned for prescription for anyone under 18. She was very sick with pneumonia, but her doctor failed to admit her to the hospital.

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I have taken Phenergan as an adult for a severe kidney infection, and its effect on me was like being severely intoxicated. I had to be watched the entire time to make sure I didn't fall or otherwise hurt myself.

Nikki’s toxicology report showed lethal levels of the respiratory-suppressing Phenergan still in her system.

Roberson claimed Nikki's head wound was the result of her falling out of bed. Skeptical doctors, seeing Roberson's supposed lack of emotion for his daughter (remember, he is autistic), called police to report the incident as abuse. Roberson was charged with murder.

Why Many Believe Robert Roberson May Be Innocent

During his trial, "experts" testified that Nikki's injury was "Shaken Baby Syndrome" even though Nikki was a toddler, not an infant. And while she did have a brain bleed, she had no other evidence of having been shaken, like injuries to the vertebrae in her neck.

Many people convicted of murder by Shaken Baby Syndrome have since been exonerated, as many experts now believe it to be junk science.

The medical examiner determined Nikki's cause of death without waiting for the toxicology reports that showed toxic levels of Phenergan still in her system, nor did she review Nikki's extensive medical history of infection, including pneumonia.

Additionally, Roberson's jury was presented with a baseless claim from a nurse that Roberson sexually abused his child. There was no physical evidence to confirm the nurse's wild assumption.

In 2024, Roberson was hours away from being executed before lawmakers fought for a stay of execution, which was granted in the nick of time. Now he is once again scheduled to be executed on October 16, 2025.

His attornies continue to advocate for him:

I am disgusted and disheartened, despite having zero sympathy for anyone who hurts a child.

I simply do not believe Roberson is responsible for Nikki's death at all. And for 20 years, a grieving father has sat waiting to face an injustice for which the State of Texas ought to be ashamed.