Roberson death penalty hearing concludes

Judge Deborah Evans heard closing arguments in the state’s proceedings of the death penalty case of Robert Roberson Monday, Jan. 31.

Roberson was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2003 for the death of Nikki Curtis, his two-year-old daughter.

The court proceedings began at 9 a.m. Monday in the main room of the Anderson County Courthouse and concluded at 1:45 p.m.

The closing arguments of the defense was a summation of all original case evidence, as well as all new evidence that was introduced during the March 2021 evidentiary hearing.

The prosecution maintained the 2003 jury conviction of Roberson stood, that the defense had not met the burden of proof, specifically that the medical science of the time was no longer applicable and that Roberson would be found innocent today if that medical science was thrown out.

After hearing from attorneys for Roberson and the State on Monday and considering the totality of the evidence, Evans will make a recommendation. The case will then go back to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for an automatic review and a final determination as to whether he should receive a new trial.

The judge will now have 15 days to write a Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and submit them back to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

The CCA will review these findings and conclusions, which could take over a year, before a decision is rendered by the highest criminal appeals court in Texas.

If the CCA upholds the argument made on behalf of Roberson by his defense in the evidentary hearing, then his conviction will be reversed and he will be granted a new trial. If they do not, then Roberson’s 2003 conviction stands and he will return to death row.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Roberson’s scheduled June 21, 2016 execution and sent his case back to the trial court level to consider the merits of four distinct claims, including a “junk science” claim.

An evidentiary hearing initially began in August 2018 but was put on hold on Aug. 14, 2018 after District Clerk Teresia Coker found 15-year-old evidence, including Nikki’s lost CAT scans in the Anderson County Courthouse basement.

After a two-and-a-half year hiatus, the evidentiary hearing was held in March 2021 in a hybrid of Zoom and in-person testimony at the Anderson County Courthouse. 

The evidentiary hearing took eight days.

Roberson’s legal team, led by Gretchen Sween, called a total of six witnesses, including three experts, to the stand before resting after six days of testimony.

During the March 2021 evidentiary hearing, Roberson’s defense made four claims, including his actual innocence of causing the death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki. His defense also presented new evidence calling into question the “integrity of his conviction.” If any of the four claims presented are accepted by the courts, he will be entitled to a new trial.

Roberson has long maintained he does not understand what happened to his daughter and he had no intent to harm her, or cause her death.