John Grisham and Jim McCloskey shine a spotlight on wrongful convictions in the controversial Texas case

The Robert Roberson case casts a new spotlight on the death penalty.

Roberson was convicted in 2002 of killing his daughter based on the controversial diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. He protests his innocence. Roberson, who was scheduled to be executed last week by then The Texas Supreme Court temporarily halted the trialHe would have been the first person executed for a shaken baby syndrome conviction.

New York Times bestselling author John Grisham testified about the case in Texas on Monday. Now he is calling for an end to the death penalty in the USA

“He (Roberson) was convicted of shaking her to death with some of this in Texas outdated, old science “This was used 20 to 30 years ago and was popular,” Grisham said of Roberson’s case.

Grisham, along with Jim McCloskey, who founded a nonprofit organization called Centurion Ministries to help free innocent people, recently published a book called “Framed: Amazing True Stories About False Beliefs.” The book focuses on 23 defendants who were caught in the net for something they say they didn't do.

One of the cases presented in the book is that of Clarence Brandley. He was a custodian at Conroe High School, which is about 50 miles north of Houston, McCloskey said.

In 1980, Brandley, a black man, discovered the body of a white 16-year-old girl who was a visiting volleyball team member in the attic above the school auditorium. She had been raped and strangled.

“Don't ask me why, but the police said because he found the body and because he's African American … he's the only suspect,” McCloskey said.

Three days after the crime, a Texas ranger was called in to advise on the case, McCloskey said. Shortly thereafter, McCloskey said, Brandley was arrested for murder. He was sentenced to death, but his conviction was later overturned after he spent almost ten years in prison. In 2018, Brandley died of pneumonia.

“There have been 3,600 exonerations in the U.S. since 1989. To my knowledge, there has not been a single public inquiry into a single conviction,” McCloskey said.

His organization, Centurion Ministries, is responsible for 70 exonerations.

Grisham blames law enforcement's tunnel vision for wrongful convictions.

“They're under tremendous pressure to solve the crime, to solve the case, to get the conviction, and that impacts the prosecution… Once they target a suspect, they ignore all evidence to the contrary,” he said.