From Texas Public Radio:
An unusual legal move has bought more time for a Texas man who was set to be executed Thursday evening.
A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, who said Robert Roberson was actually innocent and shouldn’t be executed, issued a subpoena for the death row inmate.
Roberson was convicted of the capital murder of his 2-year-old daughter in 2002. Prosecutors said she died from shaken baby syndrome but new evidence showed she died from pneumonia and not abuse. That new evidence was not considered in any of his rejected appeals.
“For over 20 years, Robert Roberson has spent 23.5 hours of every single day in solitary confinement in a cell no bigger than the closets of most Texans, longing and striving to be heard. And while some courthouses may have failed him, the Texas House has not.” said Texas Reps. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) and Joe Moody (D-El Paso) in a joint statement.
The lawmakers said they subpoenaed Roberson to hear his testimony on Texas capital punishment. Roberson was scheduled to testify on Monday, Oct. 21, several days after the scheduled execution of 6 p.m. Thursday.
Just 90 minutes before the death warrant was to be carried out, a Travis County judge presided over a court hearing to decide which carried more weight and should be honored — a Texas legislative subpoena or a death warrant for execution.
Judge Jessica Mangrum granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the execution. This began a night of legal limbo for Roberson.
The state, intent on going through with the execution, succeeded in having Judge Mangrum’s restraining order overruled by the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals.
The lawmakers then appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, arguing their effort to subpoena Roberson was a civil matter. The state’s highest court agreed.
“Whether the legislature may use its authority to compel the attendance of witnesses to block the executive branch’s authority to enforce a sentence of death is a question of Texas civil law, not its criminal law,” wrote Justice Evan Young.
