On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court said that a legislative subpoena cannot stop an execution. This came after Republican and Democratic lawmakers who believe Robert Roberson is innocent used a new method to stop his execution at the last minute.
The ruling makes it possible for Roberson’s execution to happen. This comes after a group of lawmakers from both parties bought him more time by subpoenaing Roberson while he was waiting to be taken to the country’s busiest death chamber.
Roberson was put to death in 2003 for killing Nikki Curtis, his 2-year-old daughter. He would be the first person in U.S. history to be put to death because of a conviction related to “shaken baby syndrome,” a diagnosis that some medical professionals now question.
Roberson has not been given a new execution date, but it will happen unless Republican Gov. Greg Abbott grants a 30-day stay of execution. Abbott didn’t do anything about it before Roberson’s scheduled execution date, and his office fought the lawmakers’ use of subpoenas, saying they were going too far with their authority.
As a result, the state’s all-Republican high court agreed. In its opinion, Republican Justice Evan Young wrote, “Under these circumstances the committee’s authority to compel testimony does not include the power to override the scheduled legal process leading to an execution.”
The ruling was about a subpoena that the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee sent to Roberson. Roberson was supposed to be put to death by lethal injection on October 17, but lawmakers issued a subpoena for him to testify at the Texas Capitol just days before his execution.
This caused a legal problem between the state’s civil and criminal courts. In the end, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in Roberson’s favor while it thought about the case.
Lawmakers and medical professionals from both parties have backed Roberson because they say he was wrongfully convicted of “shaken baby syndrome.” This is a serious brain injury that happens when a child’s head is hit violently, like when they are slammed against a wall or thrown to the floor.
The main person working to stop Roberson’s execution, Rep. Joe Moody, said that the subpoena was “never our specific intention” to delay the execution. He also said that the court “rightly agreed” that the subpoena and lawsuit were valid.
The court’s decision “reinforced our belief that the Committee can indeed obtain Mr. Roberson’s testimony and made clear that it expects the executive branch of government to accommodate us in doing so,” Moody said. This meant that Roberson could still be called to testify.
Prosecutors said Roberson killed his daughter by shaking her back and forth very hard. Roberson’s lawyers have said that the child’s symptoms did not appear to be related to child abuse and that she most likely died from complications from having severe pneumonia.
Civil rights activists and nearly 90 lawmakers from all parties have backed Roberson’s case. They say he is innocent and has not been given a fair trial because of the state’s “junk science law.” People who were convicted of a crime based on old science can have their sentence thrown out because of this law.
The law from 2013 was praised as progressive and the first of its kind. However, civil rights activists say that the state’s highest criminal court is not applying the law correctly to people who are about to be put to death.
The Supreme Court, which only hears civil cases, made it clear that it wasn’t going to rule on whether Roberson was guilty or innocent of capital murder or on the evidence that was being used. The criminal courts should answer those questions, and so far, Roberson’s appeals have been turned down, the Supreme Court said.
Roberson can still testify to meet the subpoena, but when that happens is up to the attorney general’s office. One of his lawyers, Gretchen Sween, says that previous attempts to do so were thrown out by the office.
“It remains to be seen if the attorney general’s office will change its mind and work with us,” she said.
The parole board decided not to ask for Roberson’s release before his scheduled execution date, and the governor’s office said the lawmakers who sent the subpoena were not following the rules.
