Death row inmate Robert Roberson, who faces the prospect of turning into the first particular person within the U.S. to be executed for a “shaken child” loss of life, was a no-show Friday at a listening to earlier than a Texas state House committee the place he was alleged to testify.
“My expectation was that we’d have Robert Roberson right here to talk with us, however that will not be occurring right this moment,” Rep. Joe Moody, the committee chair, mentioned.
Roberson “was prevented from being right here,” Moody mentioned. “The effort right here has been by some to cover him and silence him as a result of his testimony could be instructive, as a result of it will be useful.”
Instead, the committee heard testimony from Josh Burns, a former airline pilot who served a yr in jail after he was falsely accused of abusing his daughter.
“I’m right here to talk for Robert right this moment whose life hangs within the steadiness over junk science and the shaken child speculation,” he mentioned.
There was no quick response from the Texas state’s lawyer normal’s workplace, however the developments got here a day after that workplace filed a movement permitting the jail system to ignore the subpoena for Roberson to be transported to the state capital Austin for the listening to Friday.
The AG’s workplace additionally objected in October when state lawmakers issued an identical subpoena for Roberson to testify in Austin, a authorized gambit that wound up halting his Oct. 17 execution with solely hours to spare.
Roberson, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence within the 2002 loss of life of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, had been summoned to testify in his case because it pertains to a 2013 “junk science” legislation permitting Texas inmates to probably problem convictions based mostly on advances in forensic science.
This time, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was ordered to move Roberson from the jail north of Houston the place he’s being held to the state Capitol in Austin.
The workplace of Attorney General Ken Paxton objected, saying, “In addition to presenting severe safety dangers, the subpoena is procedurally faulty and due to this fact invalid because it was issued in violation of the House Rules, the Texas Constitution, and different relevant legal guidelines.”
Previously, Paxton mentioned in October that there have been security considerations with having Roberson introduced earlier than lawmakers and cited an absence of a state facility close to Austin that might briefly home him. The state had mentioned he might testify just about.
In response, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence supplied a compromise that its members might meet with Roberson in jail. They mentioned they have been uncomfortable with the video choice, given his autism and unfamiliarity with the know-how. The assembly, nonetheless, by no means occurred.
House committee lawmakers determined to subject a second subpoena after the lawyer normal’s workplace challenged the preliminary one. The authentic subpoena was an uncommon authorized gambit that set off a flurry of litigation that put Roberson’s execution on maintain mere hours earlier than he was to be executed on Oct. 17.
The House committee members mentioned they nonetheless need Roberson to have the ability to testify in his case because it pertains to a 2013 “junk science” legislation that enables Texas inmates to probably problem convictions based mostly on advances in forensic science.
“Robert’s testimony will shed vital gentle on a few of the issues with our ‘junk science writ’ course of, a authorized process Texas lawmakers anticipated to supply reconsideration in instances like this one,” committee chair and state Rep. Joe Moody, a Democrat, and committee member and state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican, mentioned in a press release. “His perspective shall be particularly beneficial as an individual on the autism spectrum whose neurodivergence profoundly influenced each his case and his entry to justice on enchantment.”
Last month, the Texas Supreme Court sided with state officers, saying lawmakers couldn’t use their subpoena energy to successfully halt an execution. However, they mentioned the committee members might nonetheless compel Roberson to testify.
The lawyer normal’s workplace has not set a brand new execution date.
Meanwhile, the lawmakers and Paxton have sparred publicly over Roberson’s case, with every accusing the opposite of “misrepresenting” particulars that led to his conviction in his daughter’s loss of life and releasing their very own experiences in current weeks rebutting one another’s claims.
Doctors and legislation enforcement rapidly concluded Nikki was killed on account of a violent shaking episode. But Roberson’s protection says a brand new understanding of so-called shaken child syndrome reveals that different medical situations may be elements in a toddler’s loss of life, as they consider it was in Nikki’s.
Anthony Cusumano contributed.