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A former Texas detective who helped put a man behind bars for the death of his daughter is now fighting to get him off death row.
Reverend Brian Wharton played a vital role in the prosecution of Robert Roberson, who was convicted for the murder of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, in 2003.
He was given the death penalty and has remained on death row ever since.
“He has never been far from my mind. Why? Because I helped put him here, and he didn’t deserve it,” Wharton told The New York Times.
The execution date for Roberson, 57, is scheduled for October 17 after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted his previous execution in 2016.
This is despite new evidence reportedly debunking the original theory that Nikki died of shaken baby syndrome (SBS), with The Texas Tribune reporting that Roberson’s attorneys said they plan to file a new request to overturn his conviction, supposedly underpinned by new evidence.
Speaking to Roberson for the first time they have seen each other since his conviction, Wharton reflected on the investigation process: “I’m convinced we did the wrong thing.”
“I think if it would have been properly investigated more,” Roberson responded, “we wouldn’t be sitting here now probably.”
Later in the video, Wharton explained that “no other possibilities” for the young girl’s injuries, which she would tragically die from the following day, were considered: “I regret deeply that we followed the easiest path.”
One element of the investigation was that police found Roberson to be unemotional and unresponsive when he took his young daughter, who he said had been sick with a fever, to the hospital after she suffered a fall from bed.
Since leaving the police force and joining the ministry, Wharton has learned that Roberson is autistic, explaining what is now understood to be a neurodivergent response to his daughter’s illness and death.
“It’s absolutely insane that this never came up in this trial,” Wharton said.
So far this year, ten people have been executed in the US, including Kenneth Eugene Smith who was controversially executed by nitrogen gas in Alabama in January.
This made him the first person in US history to be put to death via lethal gas, with witnesses saying they saw someone “struggling for their life” for several minutes.
