Kayla Guo
speaker
59 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard Feb 2025
Kayla Guo’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
More often than not, does not, you know, allow for that and usually affirms the state's case and is sort of prosecutorially minded. But in this case, they agreed. Mielis gave it a second look and instructed the trial court to do that.
And what they produced for a evidentiary hearing in 2021 was just reams and reams of evidence and experts saying, one, the consensus around shaken baby diagnoses has changed. And two, the evidence in Nikki's case doesn't support a shaken baby diagnosis to begin with.
That, again, all contributed to her ultimate death and that it wasn't shaking. And they also point to a lot of problems, they say, in how Nikki was handled. They say that the doctor who performed the autopsy before she made her conclusion was already told that Robert had been arrested for homicide, which...
These days, I think experts would say would taint an autopsy provider's ultimate conclusions about what caused this person's death. They also point to other problems in his trial, such as one nurse testifying that she saw evidence of sexual abuse on Nikki, that another expert refuted during the trial, and that
The prosecutors didn't bring up any other evidence for, but still mentioned it in their closing statement. So they've raised all sorts of problems with the trial itself, and they've also tried to bring up all of this new evidence to offer an alternative explanation for Nikki's death. And they say it was natural and accidental.
The trial judge decided, let's move forward with his conviction, his execution. We think that the court handled it right the first time, the jury handled it right the first time, you know, cleared the way for Robert's execution to move forward at that point. And it really wasn't until last July that we had a new execution date and that it was set for October.
They ask the court to reconsider. They ask the court to look again more carefully at the evidence they've presented. They say they don't believe the evidence has been meaningfully engaged with by the courts, and they ask the courts to look again.
They get new experts to come in and to give their evaluation of Nikki's medical records and understanding of shaken baby diagnoses and what can cause an infant to die like she did. And they just asked the court to try again and to look again. And the court repeatedly says, no, we won't do it.
Not because, you know, we've looked at what you're saying and we don't think that warrants a different action from us. Not because we don't believe in the merits of your argument. But based on procedural grounds, you know, we just stand by what we decided beforehand.
And that left Robert with fairly few options. And going into the week leading up to his execution date, it seemed his only option was to receive clemency from the Board of Pardons and Paroles or for the governor to step in. The governor has the authority to issue a one-time 30-day reprieve.
But other than that, it didn't seem like he really had any options after all of his appeals were struck down by the court. At the same time, there's this public campaign brewing, urging somebody to do something at this point. He has advocates like John Grisham, who has spoken on his behalf.
Dr. Phil, the lead investigator in his case, has spoken to media and testified in public forums and has been very vocal about his belief that he got it wrong and this is an innocent person, he believes. Texas state lawmakers also weigh in, and they're urging the clemency board to grant him clemency and to recommend clemency. They're urging the governor to step in.
But at the end of the day, he's still sentenced to death. That is still the facts of the case, no matter how many people speak out on his behalf, and it would have required...
either somebody on the court's criminal court deciding, maybe we got this wrong, maybe let's do yet another look, or the district attorney saying, maybe there's some problems with how we prosecuted this case, or it would have required a select few people had to change their minds in order to actually make a difference in his case.
Yes. And also, in the week before his execution was set, the state's highest criminal court, the same court that has denied his appeals over and over again, overturned another Shaken Baby Syndrome conviction out of Dallas County. In that opinion, the court acknowledged that the scientific knowledge around Shaken Baby has evolved.
And, you know, believes that this conviction and this other person's case was wrong. And so his lawyers are pointing to that as, you know, like, you've acknowledged that the signs has changed. Why can't you acknowledge it also in Robert's case? And a large majority of the Texas House has signed a letter urging clemency at this point, which is really rare to get that number on paper.
86 lawmakers signed this letter urging clemency. It's rare to get that number on most things, much less, you know, something about the death penalty. But they were united in believing that something here had gone wrong and this was someone who deserved another look.
And at this hearing, they invited a bunch of different expert witnesses, people who study criminal justice in the state, medical experts, the prosecuting district attorney and Roberts' appeals attorney to come testify. They laid out all this evidence that a jury had never heard, that had not been presented to the jury at the time, again, because the science was different at the time.
taking this discussion over is he innocent or is he guilty out of the courtroom and into sort of the public discourse, into the state capitol, which is not where death penalty cases are litigated, but this is where the lawmakers had taken it.
It was intense. He, I believe, was the first witness to come before the committee that morning. The hearing room was fairly packed at that point, and his testimony was emotional, it was personal, and he was reaching 20 years into his memory to tell lawmakers about how he believed he got it wrong and how he helped send what he now thinks is an innocent man to death row.
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