The Texas judge overseeing the case of Robert Roberson, convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter, has voluntarily recused herself from further proceedings, adding a new complication to a death penalty case that has drawn national scrutiny for its reliance on questionable evidence of “shaken baby” syndrome.
The judge, Deborah Oakes Evans, signed a death warrant for Mr. Roberson, but it expired in October amid legal wrangling between a bipartisan group in the Texas State House, who wanted the execution postponed, and the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, whose office wanted it swiftly carried out.
A new execution date has not yet been set.
Judge Evans’s recusal, filed with the court last week, appeared to create a new hurdle for a case that already has raised novel legal questions around executions in Texas.
In order to reschedule the execution, the district attorney in the county where Mr. Roberson was convicted — Anderson County, between Dallas and Houston — would need to ask the judge presiding over the case to sign a new death warrant.
That did not happen before the recusal, and so far, the case does not appear to have been assigned to a new judge.
Judge Evans, who had come out of retirement to sign the death warrant in the case this year, did not explain her reason for stepping aside. In the one-paragraph order filed on Nov. 25, she said she recused herself “voluntarily.”
Lawyers for Mr. Roberson sought Judge Evans’s recusal earlier this year, arguing unsuccessfully that she appeared to be biased against him. Judge Evans had presided over a hearing to consider new evidence in the case in 2021, but ultimately decided against ordering a new trial, and instead cleared the way for the execution to proceed.
Gretchen Sween, a lawyer for Mr. Roberson, said that the judge’s decision to recuse herself now was a surprise, and offered the district attorney a fresh chance to consider what the defense says is new medical evidence showing that Mr. Roberson, who was convicted of murder in 2003, did not kill his daughter.
Ms. Sween said the district attorney, Allyson Mitchell, is not required to seek a new execution date. “That is up to her discretion,” Ms Sween said. “I hope this gives the district attorney an opportunity to reflect on whether to seek a new execution date and instead consider meeting with Mr. Roberson’s legal team to discuss the evidence of innocence.”
Neither Ms. Mitchell nor Mr. Paxton’s office responded to requests for comment on the recusal. A spokesman for the Texas House members who have sought to postpone the execution declined to comment.
The case has attracted widespread attention. Defense lawyers have raised questions about the science of shaken baby syndrome, which figured prominently in the prosecution and conviction. Mr. Roberson has attracted support from dozens of Republicans and Democrats in the Texas State House, as well as the detective who investigated the death, the author John Grisham and the talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw.
Mr. Roberson’s lawyers have argued that the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome relied on an outdated understanding of his daughter’s symptoms, and that her death was caused not by trauma but by a combination of pneumonia and prescribed medications.
Those arguments did not persuade the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency, nor did Gov. Greg Abbott step in to delay the execution.
On Oct. 16, the day before Mr. Roberson was scheduled to die, the State House members, led by Representatives Joe Moody, a Democrat, and Jeff Leach, a Republican, intervened with an unusual step to halt the execution: They subpoenaed Mr. Roberson to testify about his case before a State House committee.
The move created a legal conflict between the legislative and executive branches of the state government. The Texas Supreme Court stepped in and issued a temporary stay of execution so that the conflict could be resolved.
The court ruled last month that the Texas lawmakers had exceeded their power when they intervened, but the court did not consider the evidentiary questions around Mr. Roberson’s guilt.
The court said that, since a new execution date could not legally be set for several months, the legislature could issue a new subpoena for Mr. Roberson to testify. Members of the House were expected to do so in the next few weeks.
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