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Texas loss of life row inmate Robert Roberson is anticipated to seem in-person for testimony on the state Capitol on Monday after an uncommon authorized intervention by state lawmakers delayed his Thursday execution.
The Texas Home Committee on Legal Jurisprudence issued an unprecedented subpoena to Roberson on Wednesday, lower than 24 hours earlier than he was set to die, in a determined transfer to purchase him extra time.
Lawmakers requested the courts on Thursday to cease Roberson’s execution in order that he may seem for testimony earlier than the committee on Monday. In a historic order, the Texas Supreme Court docket issued a keep late Thursday, hours after Roberson was set to be executed.
“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,” state Reps. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, and Jeff Leach, R-Plano, said in a statement after the high court’s order came down. “We look forward to welcoming Robert to the Texas Capitol, and along with 31 million Texans, finally giving him — and the truth — a chance to be heard.”
Roberson’s attorneys confirmed Friday that he was anticipated to seem for testimony in particular person subsequent week. Meaning the Texas Division of Legal Justice must securely transport Roberson the greater than 200 miles from loss of life row in Livingston to Austin.
State lawmakers, together with a broad, bipartisan coalition of supporters, had urged the state to cease Roberson’s execution, warning that he was most certainly harmless and had been denied due course of over 20 years of appeals.
In a dramatic authorized battle that started unfolding simply hours earlier than Texas was set to execute Roberson, Texas Home lawmakers sought to win Roberson extra time by arguing that solely he may present distinctive testimony related to the committee’s work on prison justice issues and particularly, the state’s pioneering 2013 junk science legislation — which Roberson had tried, and failed, to make use of to show his innocence.
“His testimony on his access to justice and due process are unique because he is a person with autism in a case unlike any other in the State of Texas — the first potential ‘shaken baby syndrome’ execution,” Leach and Moody wrote of their petition to the Texas Supreme Court docket. “No other person can provide the Committee with this information. Given the dispute over some of the facts surrounding his case, it is also essential for the Committee to hear from him personally to judge his credibility as a witness.”
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All of Roberson’s appeals have been rejected by the courts to date, elevating issues amongst lawmakers that the judiciary was failing to correctly implement the state’s junk science legislation. That legislation was created to permit the courts to overturn a conviction if the science on the middle of the case had since modified or been discredited.
