Texas lawmakers are no longer expected to hear Monday from the death row inmate convicted of capital murder in a shaken baby case who advocates say is innocent.
Rep. Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat who chairs the House’s Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, made the announcement Monday afternoon as a hearing at the Capitol in Austin began.
State lawmakers took extraordinary steps ahead of Robert Roberson’s scheduled execution Thursday, Oct. 17, with legislators stepping in, asking he testify before House members and issuing a subpoena. A related committee hearing was held Wednesday, Oct. 16.
Roberson is accused of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis in 2002. He was convicted in 2003 and received the death penalty.
According to the Associated Press, prosecutors allege he violently shook his daughter, resulting in fetal head trauma. Advocates and his attorneys argue that Roberson is innocent and was wrongly convicted . Medical and scientific evidence shows that his daughter died of accidental and natural causes, and Roberson was convicted “under the now-debunked shaken baby syndrome (SBS) hypothesis,” according to the Innocence Project.
A litany of court filings and orders have been filed and issued in recent days, and on Thursday the Texas Supreme Court halted Roberson’s execution after House lawmakers stepped in.
“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,” Moody and Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican on the committee, said in a joint statement. “We’re deeply grateful to the Texas Supreme Court for respecting the role of the Texas legislature in such consequential matters. 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.”
The hearing scheduled for Monday before the House’s Criminal Jurisprudence committee is related to a 2013 “junk science” law. While Roberson isn’t testifying, the committee is hearing from witnesses, including from Phil McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil, and author John Grisham, who is testifying virtually. Grisham is an attorney and a member of the Innocence Project’s board of directors.
“I am 100% convinced that we’re facing a miscarriage of justice here,” McGraw told the lawmakers.
Grisham told the legislators that Roberson’s trial was “grossly unfair” and based on debunked science.
“If not for you, Robert would be in his grave today,” he said.
One of the jurors in Roberson’s trial, Terre Compton, also spoke to lawmakers.
“Everything that was presented to us was all about shaken baby syndrome. That is what our decision was based on,” Compton said. “Nothing else was ever mentioned or presented to us to consider. If it had been told to us … now I would have had a different opinion and I would have found him not guilty.”
Ahead of the hearing and amid questions over whether he’d address lawmakers in person or virtually, Leach on Monday told CNN that he fully expected Roberson to testify .
“I fully expect him to testify today, and if not, we’re going to make reasonable accommodations to ensure that his testimony is heard before this committee sooner rather than later.
“The question now is whether he’ll show up today, whether he’ll show up at another date here at the Texas Capitol, or, if necessary, whether our committee will take a field trip … to interview him in a public hearing there at the prison.”
But when the meeting began, Moody referenced a “flurry of litigation” in the Texas Supreme Court over the weekend when announcing that Roberson isn’t expected to testify Monday.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office told lawmakers Roberson would testify virtually, according to WFAA. In a Monday filing to the Texas Supreme Court, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office argued that the committee has “stepped out of line” and that “the power to grant clemency in a capital case, including a 30-day reprieve, is vested in the governor alone.
The subpoena from House lawmakers for Roberson remains in effect and the committee could take a “heavy handed approach” to enforce it, Moody said.
“But we didn’t issue the subpoena to create a constitutional crisis, and we aren’t interested in escalating a division between branches of government,” Moody said. “In fact, we have the greatest respect for every other facet of our government and we want all of them to come together in our purpose here, which is making sure that Robert is heard.”
Virtual testimony before the committee by video wouldn’t be appropriate for Roberson because he is autistic and has “significant communication challenges” and has spent “most of the last two decades alone, locked away from the modern technology we now take for granted,” Moody said.
Moody said lawmakers and the Texas Attorney General’s Office are working to reach a resolution that will allow Roberson to testify before the committee in person while addressing the office’s concerns.
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