Transcript of Fight Another Day

The detectives said missing kids usually come home. What happens when they don't? Based on a true story. Police looking for John Gacy. We discovered bodies by the looks of it, the younger man. The things he did to those kids. He's sick.

The system failed these families.

Devil in Disguise, John Wayne Gacy, streaming October 16th, only on Peacock. Do you know how many there are? Up to you to find out.

We have won a battle, but we have certainly not won the war.

Just seven days before Texas planned to execute Robert Robertson on October 16th for murdering his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, and just hours after episode four of this podcast dropped, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals handed down a ruling. I immediately called Robert's lawyer, Gretchen Swinn.

Gretchen, I'm looking at a two-page ruling from the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas. What does it say?

The bottom line is it says Robert is not going to be killed by the state of Texas next week.

The court put Robert's execution on hold.

You sound like you're holding your breath there. You can't believe this.

I'm somewhat in shock, and I'm reminded when I first spoke to Robert nearly 10 years ago to tell him about the stay he had received in June of 2016, and he sounded like this little child and talking to me about a bag of chips. I feel like I, too, have this weight on my heart, and I'm struggling to process this and probably would like to go eat a bunch of chips or something.

Robert's case has been sent back to a lower court judge for review.

The good news is we lived to fight another day. The The bad news is the fight that has been so protracted is not over.

The new ruling that halted Robert's execution hinges on the case of someone you met in episode 4, Andrew Rourke, another Texas man, convicted based on a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

We end up at an elevator bank, and there's five Dessotel police officers jump me and arrest me right there in the hospital.

After spending 13 years in prison, prosecutors said Andrew was innocent and agreed with medical experts the science of shaken baby syndrome was outdated.

It doesn't make any sense that mine in his cases being so similar and me being on this side of it, and he's still facing death.

Now the court wants to know whether the finding of junk science in Andrew's case should apply to Robert's, too. The Texas attorney general did not return our request for comment. But in a press release last year, he insisted that Nicki was a victim of blunt force trauma and that the jury did not convict Robert on the basis of shaken baby syndrome.

So this doesn't permanently stop the clock.

It certainly doesn't mean they could never set another execution date. If we go through all this and again lose, he would be back in this position again. But if we go through it and win, what it will then mean is finally that new trial that we've been fighting for.

Can you just give me your personal reaction to what we've learned today?

My personal reaction is that I'm both elated and sad, if that makes any sense. I'm very happy he's going to be alive next week for me to visit him and go over this. But I'm sad. He's almost 60 years old, and here we are, back at the beginning of another fight. I cannot believe the outpouring of support. I would certainly say that the national spotlight that your podcast has shown on this case and the independent reporting elevated this story. I'm just so profoundly grateful for that. And I hope you'll stay with us because the fight's not over.

We will stay on this story wherever it goes.

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