Retired detective: We got it wrong in Robert Roberson's death penalty case

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• autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This is the best summary I could come up with:

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  I was the supervising detective, investigating and providing oversight in a case where Robert Roberson was accused of shaking his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, to death.

  As an investigator, I deferred to the expert knowledge of a pediatrician and medical examiner in Dallas and followed their lead in explaining what then seemed inexplicable.

  Now, however, I have observed how the version of the shaken baby hypothesis put before his jury as “fact” has been entirely debunked by evidence-based science.

  Now it is recognized that many naturally occurring diseases that cause oxygen deprivation, including pneumonia, as well as short falls with a head impact, can cause the same set of internal conditions that Nikki had.

  Both trials featured the very same Dallas-based child abuse expert who told the juries that three medical findings, often referred to as the “triad”— subdural bleeding, brain swelling, an retinal hemorrhage—could support an inference that abusive shaking and blunt impact explained how the child had collapsed.

  A motion to reconsider a denial of Roberson’s innocence claim is pending in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

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  The original article contains 920 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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