Texas man whose execution was halted by subpoena set to testify to lawmakers
AUSTIN, Texas– A Texas man whose execution was subsequently halted a last desperate maneuver by legislators who believe Robert Roberson had not killed his two-year-old daughter, was scheduled to testify before a U.S. House of Representatives panel on Monday, four days after he was scheduled to die by lethal injection.
Roberson would become the first person in the US to be executed for a murder conviction linked to a diagnosis shaken baby syndrome. His claims of innocence are backed by a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers who say he was convicted based on outdated science.
Once Roberson has testified before lawmakers, prosecutors can request a new execution date at any time, said Gretchen Sween, one of his attorneys.
Lawmakers tried to have Roberson transported off death row to appear in person, raising the possibility of an extraordinary scene at the Texas Capitol, but the attorney general’s office told the committee he would appear virtually.
Rebuffed by the courts and the Texas Parole Board in their efforts to spare Roberson’s life, lawmakers last Thursday subpoenaed Roberson to testify in an unusual manner to buy him more time. Lawmakers on the House committee have spoken out frustration with Texas’ junk science lawwhich they say has not worked as intended, including in Roberson’s case.
The 2013 law allows a person convicted of a crime to seek help if the evidence used against them is no longer credible. At the time, it was praised by the legislature as a unique future-proof solution to wrongful convictions based on flawed science. But Roberson’s supporters say his case highlights flaws in the justice system, where the law has been weakened by deliberate misinterpretations by the state’s highest criminal court.
Over the past ten years, 74 applications have been submitted and assessed under the junk science law. A third of the applications were submitted by people facing the death penalty. All were unsuccessful.
Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell, whose office prosecuted Roberson, previously told the committee that a hearing was held in 2022 in which Roberson’s attorneys presented their new evidence to a judge, who dismissed their claims.
Roberson was sentenced to death for the murder of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in 2002. Prosecutors argued that the child’s death was caused by severe head trauma from being violently shaken. Roberson’s attorneys say the bruises on Curtis’ body were likely due to complications with severe pneumonia and not child abuse.
Nearly ninety lawmakers across party lines, medical experts and best-selling authors John Grisham had called on Republican Governor Greg Abbott to postpone his execution. Abbott has not commented on Roberson’s case and the Texas parole case requests for leniency rejected.
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Lathan is a staff member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.