The Texas Supreme Court cleared the way on Friday for the southern US state to set a new execution date for an autistic man convicted in a problematic “shaken baby” case.
Robert Roberson, 58, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection on October 17, but his execution was put on hold after he was subpoenaed to testify before a Texas House of Representatives committee.
The Texas Supreme Court temporarily stayed his execution in response to the extraordinary bipartisan subpoena from lawmakers looking into Roberson’s controversial conviction and the use of “junk science” in criminal prosecutions.
The Texas attorney general appealed the decision and the Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a scheduled execution cannot be halted by a subpoena from legislators.
The case poses a “novel separation-of-powers question,” Texas Supreme Court Justice Evan Young said, but “the committee’s authority to compel testimony does not include the power to override the scheduled legal process leading to an execution.”
“Categorically prioritizing a legislative subpoena over a scheduled execution,” Young said, “would become a potent legal tool that could be wielded not just to obtain necessary testimony but to forestall an execution.”
Young said Roberson can still be called to testify before the House committee as long as it does not interfere with his execution date.
Roberson had been scheduled to be executed at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the February 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki.
A new execution date can now be scheduled but there is a gap of 91 days between the setting of a new date and an actual execution.
A bipartisan group of 86 Texas lawmakers has urged clemency for Roberson, citing “voluminous new scientific evidence” that casts doubt on his guilt.
Roberson would be the first person executed in the United States based on a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, according to his lawyers.
His case has drawn the attention of not only Texas lawmakers but also best-selling American novelist John Grisham, medical experts and the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful convictions.
‘Innocent man’
Also among his supporters is the man who put him behind bars — Brian Wharton, the former chief detective in the town of Palestine — who has said “knowing everything that I know now, I am firmly convinced that Robert is an innocent man.”
Roberson has always maintained his innocence and his attorney, Gretchen Sween, said new medical and scientific evidence shows his daughter died of “natural and accidental causes, not abuse.”
The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, made at the hospital where Roberson’s chronically ill daughter died, was erroneous, and the cause of death was in fact pneumonia, aggravated by doctors prescribing improper medication, Sween said.
Roberson’s autism spectrum disorder, which was not diagnosed until 2018, also contributed to his arrest and conviction, she said.
There have been 21 executions in the United States this year, including five in Texas.
