The case of Robert Roberson, a 57-year-old American scheduled to be executed in Texas on October 17, 2024, along with other cases of supposed infanticides, reflects our tendency to let emotion numb our critical thinking, warns a collective of scientists and legal experts in a tribune for Le Monde.
Originally published in French on lemonde.fr on October 1st, 2024.
How far can we go in the name of "science"? As Robert Roberson, a 57-year-old autistic American, faces execution in Texas on October 17, this question takes on a particularly urgent resonance.
Roberson was sentenced to death in 2003 based on a medical theory that emerged in the United States in the 1970s and has since been widely disputed (with over 30 exonerations in the U.S. to date). His daughter Nikki died at the age of 2 from intracranial and retinal hemorrhages, long considered irrefutable evidence of violent shaking. The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome is now recognized as far more complex, especially following a 2016 Swedish government report. In France, the guidelines from the Haute Autorité de santé have been contested or outright contradicted for several years. A new version is expected in 2025.
In January, doctors who re-examined Nikki’s case found other explanations for her death, including severe pneumonia. In 2003, Roberson’s lack of emotional display was interpreted as a sign of guilt—his autism was only diagnosed in 2018. His innocence is now beyond doubt for a group of 34 scientists and doctors, 86 Texas state representatives, organizations like the Innocence Project, figures like author John Grisham, and even the police investigator originally in charge of the case, who is now convinced of his mistake. They are appealing to Texas Governor Greg Abbott to stop the execution.
Victims of Meadow's Law
Beyond showing why this archaic practice must be abolished, Roberson’s story is just one tragic example among many of lives destroyed in the name of misunderstood and indiscriminately applied science in courtrooms, as the U.S. National Academy of Sciences already pointed out in 2009.
Another case is that of Melissa Lucio, sentenced to death in Texas in 2008 following the death of her 2-year-old daughter. The initial conclusions of the forensic doctors pointing to homicide have since been challenged. After a documentary by Sabrina Van Tassel aired in 2021, coupled with international mobilization (in France, she received support from former justice ministers Robert Badinter and Christiane Taubira), her execution was halted at the last minute in 2022. She is now awaiting exoneration.
A mother labeled "the worst serial killer in Australia," Kathleen Folbigg, was released and exonerated in 2023 after 20 years in prison. She had been sentenced to 40 years after the deaths of her four babies. Beyond her expressions of guilt in her diary, experts relied on "Meadow’s Law": the idea that the occurrence of multiple sudden infant deaths in one family is so improbable that it must be concealed murder. It took an international team led by geneticist Carola Vinuesa to uncover rare mutations in Folbigg's children, one linked to natural sudden deaths. This case was covered in the April 2024 issue of the French Association for Scientific Information’s journal.
Other parents have fallen victim to Meadow’s Law: British woman Sally Clark, convicted in 1999 after the deaths of her two babies, was exonerated in 2003. Psychologically destroyed, she died of alcoholism in 2007. Nearly 300 cases had to be reopened when Meadow’s Law was discredited, as it overlooked potential shared risk factors within families.
Certainties that wreak havoc
In 2023, British neonatal intensive care nurse Lucy Letby was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of seven premature newborns and attempts on six others. She was on duty at every death, and her diary mentioned feelings of guilt. Under overwhelming media coverage, Letby, branded "the worst serial killer in UK history," consistently proclaimed her innocence. Since then, numerous doctors have challenged the forensic evidence, showing that other deaths occurred in the (failing) unit... when Letby was not on duty. An inquiry is underway.
Even in French courts, unfounded "certainties" from judicial experts wreak havoc. Since 2017, the Adikia association has been denouncing the unjustified removal of infants, unfounded prosecutions, and the imprisonment of innocents for alleged acts of violence that were actually due to other causes. France will soon become aware of the scope of an unprecedented judicial disaster.
Roberson’s case, extraordinary due to his imminent execution, is symptomatic of our tendency to let emotion or authority numb our critical thinking. Simplistic, seemingly scientific theories, wrongly perceived as absolute truths, lead us to blame scapegoats for tragic events with complex, multifactorial causes—or drive us to even worse outcomes. Our scientific education must better teach us to distinguish between observations, hypotheses, evidence, and beliefs. Without this, our doctors, judges, juries, and decision-makers will continue to make catastrophic errors.
Signatories
| Masashi Akita | Attorney-at-law, Osaka, SBS Review Project (Japan) |
| Clément Bossis | Attorney-at-law, Bordeaux (France) |
| Christopher Brook | Physicist, University of La Laguna (Spain) |
| Alexandre Chacon | President of Adikia and film-maker (France) |
| Marta Cohen, OBE | Pediatric pathologist (England) |
| Bernard Echenne | Former head of neuropediatrics at Montpellier University Hospital (France) |
| Keith Findley | Professor of law emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) |
| Jeff Kukucka | Professor of psychology at Towson University (USA) |
| Christophe de La Roche Saint-André | Geneticist at the CNRS (France) |
| Tamara Levy, KC | professor of law at the University of British Columbia, director of the Innocence Project UBC (Canada) |
| Chloé Martineau | Attorney-at-law, Paris (France) |
| Michael Nott | Attorney-at-law, Medlow Bath (Australia) |
| Cyrille Rossant | Neuroscience researcher at University College London |
| Noémie Saïdi-Cotter | Attorney-at-law, Paris (France) |
| Kana Sasakura | Professor of law at Konan University (Japan) |
| Barry Schifrin | Professor of obstetrics (United States) |
| Leila Schneps | Mathematician at CNRS (France) |
| Guillaume Sébire | Pediatric neurologist, professor at McGill University (Canada) |
| Waney Squier | Former neuropathologist at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford (England) |
| Kathleen Taieb | Attorney-at-law, Paris (France) |
| Carola Vinuesa | Fellow of the Royal Society, Deputy Director of Research at the Francis Crick Institute (England) |
| Knut Wester | Professor Emeritus of Neurosurgery at the University of Bergen (Norway) |