The judge who ordered Robert Roberson to be executed is stepping down.
Deborah Oakes Evans, a retired state district judge who issued the execution warrant for Roberson earlier this year, is recusing herself from the case, The Dallas Morning News reported.
According to a court filing, Evans signed the recusal order last week, on Nov. 25. We don’t know why she voluntarily decided to step aside from the case, which has drawn attention from around the world.
Roberson has spent 22 years on death row for the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. At the time, doctors in Palestine and at the Dallas County medical examiner’s office decided that Roberson had abused his daughter because she exhibited symptoms linked to so-called shaken baby syndrome, which was long ago discredited. But in the years since the trial, Roberson’s attorneys — and various independent experts — have called that a misdiagnosis, a conclusion that experts say should have triggered a new trial under the state’s so-called “junk science” law.
Last month, the Texas Supreme Court lifted Roberson’s stay of execution, allowing the state of Texas to move forward with the execution. No new execution date for Roberson had been set as of press time on Monday.
Evans’ connection to Roberson’s case began in 2016 when she presided over a post-conviction proceeding initiated that year, court records indicate. Although she retired in 2022, she was reassigned to the case earlier this year. She oversaw the post-conviction hearings on “junk science” after the first execution was stayed but ultimately ruled against Roberson.
In February 2022, Evans rejected arguments from Roberson’s lawyers, concluding that they failed to demonstrate shaken baby syndrome was “discredited and no longer an accepted medical diagnosis.”
Though the exact reason for her recusal is unknown, it follows concerns raised by attorneys about her impartiality, who cited her alleged friendships with jurists connected to the case and her ruling to overturn another, nearly identical “shaken baby syndrome” case, which involved testimony from the exact same forensic expert featured in Roberson’s trial.
Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson’s attorneys who previously requested Evans’ recusal, was surprised at the decision. “I do not know what prompted Judge Evans to voluntarily recuse herself at this time when no matter is currently pending,” Sween told The Dallas Morning News on Sunday. “But I hope District Attorney Allyson Mitchell will now avoid rushing to obtain a new execution date and will instead agree to meet with Mr. Roberson’s legal team to discuss the overwhelming evidence that no crime occurred and that Mr. Roberson is thus innocent.”
