A juror in Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson’s 2003 capital murder trial on Monday told the legislative panel that temporarily stopped his execution that she would not have voted to convict him if presented with the new evidence that his current attorneys have put forward. Terre Compton’s testimony before the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence came hours after Roberson himself was initially expected to appear and speak on his own behalf in response to a legislative subpoena. But Roberson didn’t testify due to a dispute over whether he should answer lawmakers’ questions about his conviction and appeals in person or virtually, the Texas Tribune reports. “I just finally came to the conclusion he was an innocent man,” Compton, who voted in favor of Roberson’s conviction and death sentence, said on Monday. “In good conscience, I could not live with myself thinking that I had a hand in putting an innocent man to death.”
Compton testified that prosecutors in Roberson’s trial and sentencing focused tightly on the shaken baby diagnosis given to his daughter, Nikki Curtis, and that the jury was never shown various medical records that Roberson has since pointed to as proving that she died of natural and accidental causes. “Everything that was presented to us was all about shaken baby syndrome,” Compton said. “That was what our decision was based on. Nothing else was ever mentioned or presented to us to consider. If it had been told to us, I would have had a different opinion. And I would have found him not guilty.” Roberson was convicted in 2003 in the death of his chronically ill 2-year-old daughter, who was given a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis that many experts and lawmakers say is no longer supported by the scientific evidence. He has maintained his innocence over two decades on death row, while prosecutors say evidence of abuse is still convincing. Prosecutors in recent months have sought to downplay how central Nikki’s shaken baby diagnosis was to Roberson’s conviction. But witnesses on Monday, including Compton and others involved in Roberson’s appeals, said the trial record refuted that characterization. Medical and forensic experts, in addition to a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, have argued that Nikki most likely died not from abuse, but from viral pneumonia, which was exacerbated by medications no longer prescribed to children her age because they suppress breathing.
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