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EXHIBIT 7
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ONALASKA FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
P.O. BOX 596
ONALASKA, TX 7360
936-646-5859
Reverend Brian Wharton, Pastor
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
P.O. Box 13401
Austin, Texas 78711-3401
Board Members,
My entire adult life has been spent in the service of others in the naive hope that my efforts
might somehow make the world a little better, a more just place. I graduated from Sam Houston
State University with a degree in Law Enforcement and Police Science and a commission in the
U.S. Army. I spent six years in the Army, most of that in the Military Police Corp. After
leaving the military I began working as a police officer in Palestine, Texas. I rose from patrol
officer to Detective Sergeant, retiring in 2006 as the Assistant Chief. I have been an ordained
Elder in the United Methodist Church for the past fifteen years.
During my years supervising the Palestine PD detectives, I encountered Robert Roberson. I,
along with other investigators, was dispatched to the Palestine Reginal Hospital regarding a
comatose child. We found the child, Nikki, being attended to by ER staff who were visibly upset
by their assessment. At some point early on the notion of "Shaken Baby Syndrome" was offered
to explain her condition. Additionally, a local nurse, acting as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner
or "SANE," indicated that she had observed signs of a sexual assault.
Nikki had been brought to the ER by her father Robert Roberson who seemed to staff and
investigators to be detached from the moment. He displayed none of the emotions expected of
the father of an injured child. He was stole when questioned by investigators. Eveiything it
seemed, circumstances and behavior, pointed to Robert as the lone suspect.
Working with what we believed to be "Shaken Baby Syndrome" we began to build a case against
Robert, while he cooperated by taking us to his house to show us where Nikki had fallen out of
bed in the night. We did not take the suggestion of a fall seriously because it did not seem
significant enough to cause what the medical evaluation was suggesting. When the physicians at
Dallas Children's Hospital and the medical examiner's office arrived at the same conclusion
about abuse, we put that case together and presented it to the District Attorney. Robert was tried
and convicted in an entirely circumstantial case. He was the custodial adult, the only adult, with
Nikki in the injury window. Or so we thought.
I was never comfortable with the conviction for several reasons—even at that time. Primarily,
my experience and education have affirmed for me that the death penalty is never applied
without bias or absent political judgments. Beyond that, however, I was aware that no effort was
made to have Robert assessed for developmental disabilities. Based on my continued contact
with Robert during the investigation I had come to believe that there was something wrong, more
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than a guilty conscious, but I was not trained in mental health issues. The fact that Robert is
Autistic was established only years later. It would have been appropriate for ajuiy to know
about his Autism as they considered Robert's reported response to his daughter's injury and
death as well as his courtroom demeanor. Secondly, it seemed the way the allegation of sexual
assault was used in the trial and then removed in the end was calculated. Intended only to create
an emotionally charged negative response to Robert. There was never any corroborated
evidence, no physical evidence, and no scientific evidence that any such assault occurred. At the
time, I felt certain that an appeal would highlight these issues and induce appropriate corrections
of his conviction. I was very wrong.
For years I watched the TDCJ Death Row website to keep an eye on Robert. I needed to know
he was still alive. In 2018,1 was approached by Robert's attorney Gretchen Sween. I had, after
leaving the police department, gone to seminary and was pastoring a United Methodist church in
Hawkins, Texas. When Gretchen Sween knocked on my front door, I welcomed her, admitting
"I've been waiting on you."
Since our first meeting, I have come to understand how significant our errors were in bringing
this case to trial, and in the years following as the appeals have failed to correct fundamental
failures. Our bedrock accusation, "Shaken Baby Syndrome" as used in Robert's trial, is junk
science. Even if the accusation is described as "blunt force head trauma," the current
understanding of those injuries expands the pool of potential suspects beyond Robert to include
at the very least the grandparents who had custody the majority of the day before Nikki's death.
Also, contemporary science now shows that accidental falls and natural disease can cause the
same internal head condition that Nikki had. Also, there was no sexual assault, no evidence of
sexual assault, and now I understand that the nurse who made the initial assessment was not even
qualified to act as a SANE.
The case against Robert has no foundation in physical evidence of any kind. No witness, no
video. No statement by Robert admitting to intentionally causing any injury. Due to that lack of
evidence, Robert's conviction rested wholly on incomplete medical records and ill-informed
medical opinions reflecting the "Shaken Baby" beliefs of that time. As in most things, with time
comes a deeper understanding. What was once considered true has not held up to testing and
scientific inquiry. We now know a great deal more about Nikki's medical history. Her chronic
conditions and specifically, her medical status in the week before and at the time of her death.
We know that the medications that were in her system at the time of her death are no longer
understood to be safe for children. Together these factors are more than capable of inducing the
very conditions that killed Nikki. What's more, we now know short falls with head impact can
create conditions leading to death—hours or even days later. I contend now that if I, as an
investigator, knew then what I know today, I would not have recommended charges. Further, I
believe no District Attorney would seek indictment on the set of facts we now know. Relative to
Robert, we have moved well beyond a reasonable doubt. There is no evidence of a crime, much
less a capital crime.
I am now pastoring a United Methodist church in Onalaska Texas, just a few miles from the
Polunsky Unit and Death Row. I recently visited Robert for the first time. I have come to know
a man who is kind and full of grace, simple and true. He is forgiving even as one who knows his
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innocence. He is not now, as he certainly was not then, any kind of evil. We, the State of Texas,
are now working only to protect our capital system and a conviction. Justice for Robert or Nikki
no longer seems important. Wrongly killing her father and refusing to seek the truth about the
cause of her death is not just and selves no greater good.
We have failed to hear Robert's righteous plea of innocence. We rushed to judgment. We were
wrong, the jury was misinformed, and Robert is not guilty of any crime. If we are truly a nation
of laws, a people who love justice in the most meaningful sense of that word, then Robert Leslie
Roberson III must be set free.
Respectfully
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Rev. Brian T. Wharton