Overview

• Attorneys filed a Notice of New Evidence with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals asserting the trial judge, Bascom Bentley, let the child’s grandparents decide to withdraw life support, bypassing Roberson’s legal authority as sole managing conservator.
• The claim surfaced after the grandfather identified Bentley on a podcast, prompting defense arguments that the judge prejudged the case years before presiding over the capital trial.
• Roberson remains scheduled for execution on Oct. 16 as the Court of Criminal Appeals weighs his request for a new trial with no public indication of how it will rule.
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office continues to press for the execution after taking over at the local prosecutor’s request, and it has shifted its account from shaken-baby trauma to a fatal beating.
• An unusual group of conservative voices, including Rep. Brian Harrison, donor Doug Deason, and Crime Stoppers’ Andy Kahan, is urging a halt or retrial while the defense cites pneumonia and medication as alternative causes of death and the case’s lead detective now questions Roberson’s guilt.