Judge sets Oct. 16 execution date for Robert Roberson, East Texas death row inmate

Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Robert Roberson’s execution date is set for Oct. 16, after a state judge on Wednesday sided with Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request for it to be in three months.

Roberson, who was found guilty of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki in 2003, recently appealed the conviction after claiming innocence for 22 years. A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers delayed the execution in October 2024. Paxton requested the court proceed with the execution on Oct. 16.

“It appears at this point there is no legal basis for prohibiting setting an execution date,” said Smith County District Judge Austin Reeve Jackson.

Roberson has maintained his innocence for more than 20 years. He filed for an appeal of the conviction with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in February after new scientific evidence suggested shaken baby theory was wrong. The court has not yet considered the appeal.

“There is a lot of misinformation in this case – it’s not really a shaken baby case but in fact there are over 200 references to shaking in the trial,” said Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s lawyer, during Wednesday’s hearing.

Jackson said he didn’t know why the state’s highest criminal court had not yet taken up Roberson’s most recent appeal.

Roberson’s attorneys have sought relief six times, Sween said.

There is nothing in state law requiring the state move forward with the execution date, Sween said. But there is precedent for staying an execution until the appeals have been exhausted, she said.

Now Roberson will be placed on a 24-hour death watch until his execution date. He will be prohibited from participating in programs in the prison that had helped him.

Roberson’s legal team say they can prove Nikki’s death was natural and accidental – a result of the medications prescribed to treat her illness in the days leading up to her death.

In 2002, Nikki was sick with a high fever, according to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal defense organization which has taken up Roberson’s case alongside his legal team. Her parents took her to the doctor multiple times over the course of several days and she was prescribed medications that are now prohibited from use in children of her age, the Innocence Project states in a case write-up.

Roberson put Nikki to bed, and when he awoke in the morning he found her unconscious and her lips were blue, according to the Innocence Project. On Jan. 31, 2002, he took her to the emergency room, where she was intubated. They determined she had already experienced brain death. She died the next day.

Prosecutors said in 2003 that Nikki’s death was caused by Shaken Baby Syndrome, which the Mayo Clinic defined as “a serious brain injury that results from forcefully shaking an infant or a toddler.”

Roberson’s case cites the overturned conviction of Andrew Wayne Roark, who was also found guilty of violently shaking a young child in 2000. Roark was later exonerated.

Paxton has railed against the possibility of Roberson’s exoneration. When lawmakers – led by Reps. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, and Joe Moody, D-El Paso – fought to have Roberson testify before a legislative committee, Paxton called the move a scheme to undermine Texas’ justice system.

“Jeff Leach and his associates violated the separation of powers enshrined in the Texas Constitution: they conspired to block the lawful execution of a man convicted of murdering his two-year-old daughter, Nikki,” Paxton said in a November 2024 press release. “Ensuring justice for murder victims is one of my most sacred responsibilities as Attorney General, and we fought every step of the way for her.”

— This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune,  a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.