Dallas Morning News: They were exonerated in shaken baby cases. Can their podcast help save Robert Roberson?
Regan Bowlby
They were exonerated in shaken baby cases. Can their podcast help save Robert Roberson?
Josh Burns and Andrew Roark will launch “Unshaken Truth” on March 5, they announced in an exclusive interview with The Dallas Morning News.
Jamie Landers, February 12, 2026
It’s November 2024, a month since Robert Roberson III narrowly avoided his second of three execution dates, and few could understand what he’s been through, or what he’s up against. Apart from Josh Burns and Andrew Roark.
That same month, Texas exonerated Roark on the very premise Roberson has sought to prove for more than a decade: The science of shaken baby syndrome has evolved so drastically, that if he were to be tried again, it would not uphold his conviction. Less than a week later, a judge in Michigan did the same for Burns.
Roark and Burns wouldn’t meet until the following spring, surrounded by more than 300 exonerees at a conference in Seattle, where a brief introduction forged a brotherhood and a shared mission: “Speaking for those who can’t,” Burns said.
On March 5, Roark and Burns will launch Unshaken Truth, a podcast they created to examine — and humanize — the impact of shaken baby syndrome, a decades-old medical determination that has helped put hundreds behind bars. The theory has been heavily scrutinized in recent years, enough that some experts, and even courts, have declared it is no longer enough to presume abuse.
“I just know how that felt, to not have a voice,” Burns told The Dallas Morning News last week during an interview at his home in Rockwall, Roark at his side. “If I can be a voice for somebody who’s in that position now, I feel called to.
“As the doors open, I just walk through ‘em.”
‘This can happen to anyone’
There is an imminent need, Burns explained, for deeper understanding of the science: “This can happen to anyone.”
It happened to Roark in 1997, when he was accused of “vigorously shaking” his girlfriend’s 1-year-old daughter in DeSoto, causing brain damage. Three years later, a Dallas County jury convicted Roark of injury to a child. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
It happened to Roberson in 2002, when he was accused of fatally shaking his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, in East Texas’ Palestine. An Anderson County jury sentenced him to death, and he’s remained in prison for more than two decades.
Burns, formerly of Brighton, Mich., wasn’t accused until 2014. Two months after his daughter Naomi was born, she fell ill. Ten days into her hospital stay, a doctor contacted Child Protective Services and law enforcement over concerns of suspected child abuse based on blood found on Naomi’s brain.
Because Burns was caring for her alone the day she first developed symptoms, he was arrested for felony child abuse. He was sentenced to one year in jail and three years’ probation.
At the time, Burns said, it seemed that circumstance should have been on his side. He had a good, steady job as a pilot for Delta Airlines. He was married to a nurse. He had no criminal record. None of it saved him.
“If you show up at an emergency room with a baby and they present the wrong way,” he said, “you can quickly find yourself in the crosshairs of this.”
‘All in’
As Roberson’s case has unfolded on a national stage, Burns and Roark have seen how media exposure can influence not only a court, but the course of a life.
Most recently, both men were interviewed for The Last Appeal, a podcast series about Roberson released in October by Dateline’s Lester Holt.
As they taped, Roark recalled leaning over to Burns: “You know, we should do a podcast.”
“That would be cool, wouldn’t it?” Burns replied with a laugh.
But as the days went on, Burns couldn’t shake the possibilities. What if we went for it? Could it make a difference?
He called Roark, who was driving to Florida on a family vacation.
“Were you serious?” he asked. “Do you want to do this?”
“Yeah,” Roark said. “I’m all in.”
Lived experience, special guests
The first episode, to be released on all major platforms March 5, will feature John Grisham, a bestselling author and Innocence Project board member. Grisham is currently writing the third nonfiction book of his career, SHAKEN: The Rush to Execute an Innocent Man, featuring Roberson’s story.
From there, weekly guests will include lawmakers such as Lacey Hull, R-Houston, a leading member of a bipartisan group of Texas politicians pushing for Roberson to get a new trial; advocates such as Brian Wharton, a former Palestine detective who has since sought Roberson’s forgiveness and forged a unique friendship; and experts, such as Keith Findley, professor emeritus of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-editor of the 2023 book Shaken Baby Syndrome: Investigating the Abusive Head Trauma Controversy.
Most are key figures in Roberson’s case who have been interviewed by reporters across the country, but Roark and Burns know they bring something new to the conversation: Lived experience.
“Us going through that, I feel like we would give more people that have been falsely accused a voice,” Roark said. “Maybe we didn’t all fight in the same place, but we were all in that war together.”
The past year has offered even more perspective, navigating the fallout of a wrongful conviction and how it coexists with the joys of true freedom.
Roark has cherished getting to show his two kids, now 5 and 7, the world (“I mean, nothing ever beats Turks and Caicos,” his wife Kelli said of their favorite trip thus far). Burns said he’s still learning how to balance parenting, partnership and work with advocacy.
“When you’re falsely accused of harming the person you would lay your life down for, it’s tough to reconcile that,” Burns said. “But then the lost time, you never get it back. Nothing replaces it.”
As they work to rebuild their own lives, they take Roberson with them.
“Had the child in my case died, I would be right there with Robert — right next to him,” Roark said. It’s a heavy thing to sit with, he said, how capriciously the cards can fall.
Burns, for his part, visits Roberson twice a month on death row in Livingston. “It’s like leaving a brother behind,” he said.
There is no way to know what Unshaken Truth could do for Roberson, who is pushing forward with an uphill fight for a new trial. For now, the goal is to do enough with their worst days to spare someone else from living them.
“When I’m with Robert, we preface everything with ‘Lord willing,’” Burns said. “Lord willing, Robert, when you get out of here. Lord willing, we can make a difference.”