"For a parent, nothing is worse than the death of a child. Imagine the horror, though, of being falsely accused and wrongly convicted of killing your child."
These are the haunting words of John Grisham, bestselling novelist, lawyer, and co-author of an upcoming nonfiction book on wrongful convictions. Having written about the legal system for more than 30 years, Mr. Grisham joins hundreds of experts and bipartisan politicians in calling for clemency for Robert Roberson, whose execution is only 12 days away.
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"The deck was stacked against Mr. Roberson from the beginning," he wrote in a 2023 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. He details the history of "shaken baby syndrome," a now-discredited medical theory that was used to convict Robert of the murder of his chronically sick daughter, Nikki.
"In a rush to judgment that is the hallmark of wrongful convictions, one doctor's hunch about Nikki's death led to Mr. Roberson's arrest for murder." This misguided hunch has persisted for decades, and despite the presence of "unrebutted evidence that no homicide had in fact occurred," Robert is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on Oct. 17 — unless Gov. Greg Abbott or the court listens to the experts and steps in.
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"We expect our courts to weigh the evidence before them carefully and thoughtfully. But in Mr. Roberson's case, and in a shocking number of wrongful convictions, judges simply agree with prosecutors and protect bad convictions despite overwhelming evidence of innocence."
With Robert's life on the line and less than a month until his scheduled execution, John Grisham believes that something must be done to stop Robert's execution. Please join us and John Grisham in contacting the office of Gov. Abbott to ask him to prevent this irreversible mistake.
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Thank you for standing with the wrongfully convicted.
Innocence Project Team
In memory of Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams, Dec. 30, 1968 - Sept. 24, 2024
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