By: Sydney Umstead, News Editor
The United States may kill an innocent man – as they have done – over and over again.
Robert Roberson has been proven innocent, and yet he sits awaiting his death row execution on Oct. 17.
Roberson, an autistic man, is set to be murdered by Texas under the disproven shaken baby hypothesis.
This is not a new revelation or recently discovered science. Roberson was sentenced in 2002 and by 2009, the shaken baby hypothesis had already begun to be retracted. The court has had years to exonerate Roberson, and they refused because, plainly speaking, they do not care enough.
This hypothesis has been discredited, according to The Innocence Project. They specifically call out the misinformation that may very soon lead someone to their death. The prosecution “based its case against Mr. Roberson on the hypothesis that Nikki’s death was caused by SBS — a condition that was never scientifically validated and the premises of which have been discredited by actual science,” writes The Innocence Project.
Furthermore, it has been proven that Roberson’s daughter had been prescribed dangerous medication, and her death was a result of “severe viral and bacterial pneumonia that progressed to sepsis and then septic shock,” according to Roberson’s attorneys. This is backed up by at least three different medical experts in their fields, cited by The Innocence Project.
Roberson’s autism was also used against him, as prosecutors and hospital staff called Roberson “emotionless,” deeming him a monster.
Reverend Brian Wharton played a major role in sentencing Roberson, and even Wharton is advocating for his exoneration – yet Texas will not hear any of it. Wharton wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times lamenting his guilt over this. In a video with Roberson, Wharton says, “I’m so sorry that you are here, and I am so sorry that you are still here.”
The words “monster,” “evil” and “unsafe” fill death penalty cases. Condemning someone to death means turning society against them, condemning every fiber of their being so that no one will question their innocence. This is the system that has been built, and racism is what it’s built upon.
While Roberson is a white man, the death penalty historically has been disproportionately used to target minorities. From 1988 to 1994, 78% of death penalty sentences were given to Black people, as reported by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Moreover, the DPIC reported that “Judging by the death row populations of the states, no other jurisdiction comes close to this nearly 90% minority prosecution rate.”
One of the greatest stains on this country and its alleged proclamation of freedom is racism. We have not strayed far from the days of Frederick Douglass’ What’s A Slave to the Fourth of July (something I was not taught in high school, I should add). Right now, Slate Magazine reports that we are currently bearing witness to the largest increase of these state-led executions in the past three decades. We are all complacent in this unless we speak out against it.
The death penalty statute is a haunting relic of lynching; it’s a modern-day way of getting away with it.
The recent lynching of Marcellus Williams occurred even though there was no substantial evidence that placed him at the crime.
It is no secret that my Honors thesis is on prison abolition, but in a teary-eyed and borderline incoherent conversation driving home in a downpour, I felt a sense of loss: an agony that we live in a country that would do this, and more so one that wears it so proudly.
Somebody asked me if I believed the Supreme Court would do anything in the case of Williams, and I didn’t have the heart to tell them I was skeptical. For someone who prides themselves on being right, I didn’t want to be. Still, we need to believe we can do better than this, we need to know it. Otherwise, we will always end up right back here.
Our Supreme Court is intentionally broken and biased because of the former president, who to this day is an adamant supporter of the death penalty.
During the recent presidential debate, Kamala Harris pointed out Donald Trump had taken out a center-page ad calling for the death of the so-called “Central Park Five,” who were all innocent, minorities and juveniles. NBC News reported that “In 1989, Trump took out a full-page advertisement in New York City newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty for four Black teenagers and a Latino teen who were falsely accused of having raped a jogger in Central Park.” Trump has never apologized nor retracted these claims even when it was brought up during the debate.
The Wrong Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution by James S. Liebman and the Colombia DeLuna Project was followed by a Netflix documentary The Phantom. It details the injustice and immoral state-led manhunt and execution of the innocent Carlos DeLuna.
DeLuna told prosecutors that they had the wrong Carlos – no one was interested. It is suspected that the police department was receiving bribes from the real assailant: Carlos Hernandez.
DeLuna’s case led the former Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens, to say that he wishes he never voted in favor of the reinstatement of the death penalty. Stevens stated that The Wrong Carlos showed “beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a Texas case in which they executed the wrong defendant, and that the person they executed did not in fact commit the crime for which he was punished.” He continued, “I think it’s a sufficient argument against the death penalty…that society should not take the risk that that might happen again, because it’s intolerable to think that our government, for really not very powerful reasons, runs the risk of executing innocent people.”
If you believe the death penalty is justice, I implore you to remember, read and most importantly look at all of the innocent people sentenced to death – the ones who spent years listening to death knocking at their door, all for a crime they never committed.
The people – human beings, loved ones –who spent multiple years behind bars, expecting execution, while the state gets to say they made a mistake, set him free, and move on.
If you aren’t paying attention, I implore you to. Remember their names, know these people did not have to die, and most importantly, listen. People, flesh and blood, poets, authors and scholars are being cruelly subjected to a cold and inhumane death. They are more than any statistic or archived article calling them a “monster,” or implying so.
Ways to get involved include: Sharing Roberson’s story on social media, calling Texas Governor Greg Abbott at 361-264-9653, and signing the petition located on The Innocence Project’s website https://innocenceproject.org/petitions/justice-for-robert-roberson/.
Unfortunately, The Griffin will not publish next week, so all we can hope for is with all of our efforts combined, better news will follow.
Excerpt from “Reflections of Dementia: Causes of Missing You (Grandfather)” by Marcellus Williams
i remember you asking “when was i gonna come and visit?”
such was the moment of realization and it hurt so much to hear it
i imagined you warring with dementia desperately trying to cling to your family-
but hearing your voice had me wondering if i was still a memory? (via the Innocence Project)
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