A condemned man in Texas is set to die this month in what would be the country's first execution for " shaken baby syndrome ," a scrutinized diagnosis that has been successfully challenged in some criminal cases. After he filed a clemency petition with the state ahead of his execution, which is scheduled for Oct. 17, Robert Roberson told NBC News anchor Lester Holt in an interview airing Thursday that he is urging Texas Gov.
Greg Abbott to pardon him and "let me go home." For more on this story watch "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt" tonight at 6:30 p.m.
ET/5:30 p.m. CT.
"Look at the support I've got, Mr. Governor, and I'm just hoping, praying that you do the right thing," said Roberson, who was convicted of capital murder in his 2-year-old daughter's 2002 death. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which has declined to comment, must first recommend clemency to the governor.
Abbott has sparingly used his clemency powers. He did so in May , when he pardoned an Army sergeant convicted of murder last year in the fatal shooting of a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020. His office did not reply to requests for comment.
Texas nearly executed Roberson in 2016, but the process was halted days before by the state's highest criminal court, which allowed a lower court to conduct an evidentiary hearing. Last year, the state Court of Criminal Appeals denied Roberson's bid for a new trial, unconvinced by any new scientific data, and last month it also dismissed his request to stay h.