First impressions, rational judgements

(11/2024) Robert Roberson is an autistic man who was to be executed a couple of weeks ago in Texas. That’s a sentence meant to get your attention. "What’s that story?" my scrolling brain wants to know.

Twenty two years ago, Robert Roberson brought his infant daughter to the emergency room. She soon died. The symptoms she presented, appeared to align with "shaken baby syndrome". Robert Roberson was reported to have a neutral demeanor, and behave with little emotion. First impressions are powerful. This was perceived as his being indifferent, perhaps callus, perhaps a killer.

A trial was held. Robert Roberson was found guilty of killing his own child by reason of shaken baby syndrome. After twenty two years in prison, he was to be executed.

There’s more to the story. His daughter, Nikki, had a history of chronic illness. An autopsy showed that her death was due to an "undiagnosed case of double pneumonia". Shaken baby syndrome lost credibility as a determinable cause of death, giving this case legal reason for review according to a 2013 Texas’ law, Article 11.073, sometimes called the "junk science statute". In 2018 Robert Roberson was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Over the course of twenty-two years medical professionals found and corrected mistakes. The detective in the original case found and tried to correct mistakes. Legal teams found and corrected mistakes. The accused, Robert Roberson, was found to have a condition, which any parent of an autistic child, or teachers in Special Education can tell you, is a condition that challenges basic communication, including body language. An autistic person can have degrees of difficulty with social cues. Still, after decades, Robert Roberson lived on one side of communication barriers, stayed in prison, and on death row. The Texas agencies and officials who could have addressed this, including the Governor of Texas, all refused stay of execution.

It is not rare that a guilty verdict is reached, a years long sentence delivered, and then new information is found that exonerates the prisoner. It is also not rare that the innocent person stays locked up for more years. The job of making these calls is given to elected officials by us, the voters. Who we vote for matters.

These are not the wheels of justice. They are the wheels of intelligence and ego. Intelligence that should be used to further understanding, rather than make things harder. Ego that keeps prosecutors and judges from admitting mistakes and misunderstandings.

Robert Roberson has just been given a 30 day reprieve.

Voting decisions start with our own best interests. Flight attendants’ instruction to put the oxygen mask on your own face before helping others is good advice. Life has lots of situations that call for personal responsibility before helping others. But once we take care of ourselves, we maintain what we have by helping all of society stay on solid ground. Many people with a variety of issues that make it challenging to function in our "normal" society will achieve independence. Few of them do it without support of any kind. In the tension around this election, and time we are living in, where is the support for those in need? This question is not directed at the candidates, but their supporters. Constantly living in a state panic over what the other side might do, leaves little attention for the people who are forgotten when societies turn to hysteria for guidance.

We have policies about physical and mental health conditions because they can affect any of us, our families, friends and neighbors. Many situations in life end up in the judicial system. The best outcomes start from where we start our children—the education system. Who we vote for matters there too.

Our school system hopefully gives each of us a chance at a well rounded education. This includes our neurodivergent kids. A well rounded education for our neurotypical kids includes learning that we are unique individuals. Diagnosis and therapies to address the nuances of our children’s needs are expanding every year. At the same time our sense of community is diminishing. Teaching our neurodivergent kids how to fit into "normal" society teaches our neurotypical kids how to miss half of a conversation. When we focus solely on how to make a neurodivergent person communicate with us, we teach how to ignore half of what is really going on. Robert Roberson’s behavior when his daughter died was treated as a set of abnormal events with obvious meaning.

Who we vote for in our upcoming election matters. The Frederick County Board of Education members need to be mangers of the resources in the school system. They also need to be good listeners. Candidates with teaching, and special education experience, have participated in bridging communication gaps for our kids. With good teaching, kids can grow up learning to take a breath in a tense situation. As adults, they will be more able to look at a situation from multiple perspectives, and use critical thinking to find solutions. Each of us with neurodivergent family members want them to grow up to be independent and met with patience. No one wants their child to grow up to be poorly treated due to miscommunication.

Why repeat Robert Roberson’s whole name where Mr. Roberson will do? Because we are each whole persons with whole names. Whole lives get thrown aside when "some people" get emotional, reactionary, and call out "other people", or "that person" who did "that thing" to "fill in the blank". Politicians, their supporters, the people accused of "eating pets in Springfield, Ohio"—accusers and accused—have whole names and whole lives. The one precious vote each of us gets to cast, serves our interests while it impacts our follow Americans. Our whole lives.

The real threat to democracy? Not voting.

2024 is the year of the vote. Please make yours count.