In a surprising move, the Texas Supreme Court halted Roberson's execution

The all-Republican court’s decision comes in response to a unique legal maneuver in which a House committee voted to subpoena Roberson after his scheduled death.

This story has been updated with new information.

The Texas Supreme Court issued a stay of execution for Robert Roberson late Thursday in response to an emergency request from two Republican and Democratic lawmakers, a sensational 11th-hour decision in one of the most contentious death penalty cases in years.

The all-Republican court’s decision comes in response to a unique legal maneuver in which a House committee voted to subpoena Roberson to a hearing scheduled days after his execution date. It could give Roberson – who was scheduled to be executed Thursday at 6 p.m. the first American for a conviction related to “shaken baby” syndrome – weeks or months of life while the trial continues.

The order came four hours after the scheduled execution and two hours before the clock expired at midnight, which Texas law requires a death sentence to be carried out on the calendar day on which it was scheduled.

In the original motion, Texas Reps. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, and Joe Moody, D-El Paso, successfully asked a state district court in Travis County to temporarily stay the execution so Roberson could respond to a subpoena from the House Crime Committee. The case law agreed unanimously on Wednesday.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals soon overturned the lower court’s approval of the legislature’s request, and minutes later Leach and Moody filed an emergency motion with the Texas Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that the Court of Criminal Appeals had not have jurisdiction over a decision made in a civil court. The state Supreme Court agreed, with Judge Evan Young writing in agreement that “the underlying criminal matter is within the jurisdiction of the Court of Criminal Appeals, but the relief sought here is civil in nature, as are the claims presented.” the district court.”

In celebration of the court’s decision, Moody and Leach said in a joint statement Thursday evening: “For over 20 years, Robert Roberson has spent 23.5 hours every day in solitary confinement in a cell no bigger than most Texans’ closets, full of longing and strive to be heard,” the lawmakers said. “And while some courthouses may have failed him, the Texas House has not.”

Leach, who along with Moody led the effort to stop the execution, posted on social media before the state Supreme Court’s decision that he was “praying as if everything depends on God, which it does.” But he works as if everything depends on us.” “

Roberson’s call for a delay received broad support from a bipartisan group of more than 80 Texas House members, as well as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Dr. Phil and others.

After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request to delay the execution around 4 p.m. Thursday, Sotomayor wrote in a statement: “The mounting evidence suggests that … Roberson committed no crime at all.”

Sotomayor and others have called on Gov. Greg Abbott to grant Roberson a 30-day reprieve, but the governor remained silent on the case.

The appeals court decision followed many others in which the board rejected Roberson’s attempts to overturn his conviction.

In a dissent from the Court of Criminal Appeals’ majority opinion on Thursday, joined by three others, Judge David Newell wrote: “Given the unprecedented nature of the circumstances present in this case … we should at least explain our reasoning to the Texas legislature as well as the citizens.” of Texas.” Justices Bert Richardson, Scott Walker and Jesse McClure agreed with the dissenting opinion.

At the hearing on the motion, Moody argued that “no agency … can stand in the way of a legitimate subpoena issued by the Legislature in furtherance of a legitimate legislative purpose.”

“People will continue to argue about Mr. Robertson’s case long after today,” Moody said. “But the question today is whether the legislature has the authority to call a witness before it for a legitimate legislative purpose, and (can) an agency … simply ignore that lawfully issued subpoena?”

The attorney general’s office acknowledged that the subpoena was “lawful and valid” but argued that the Court of Criminal Appeals had “exclusive jurisdiction” over the case surrounding Roberson’s death.

The convicted man, listed in prison records as Robert Leslie Roberson III, inmate #999442, has been on Texas’ death row since February 21, 2003. He was sentenced to death for the murder of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, 13 months earlier. His lawyers have unsuccessfully argued in several appeals that the conviction was based solely on what they said was a disproven theory that a baby’s life could be extinguished by violently shaking its body.

Brian Wharton, the former police detective who built the case that sent Robertson to death row, said he was convinced that shaken baby syndrome was based on junk science and had come to believe that Nikki’s No crime was committed in death.

Roberson, who was diagnosed with autism, told authorities at the time of Nikki’s death that the child had fallen out of bed and rushed to the hospital in a desperate attempt to save her life.

Travis County State District Judge Jessica Mangrum’s order granting the legislature’s request and allowing the Texas House of Representatives Criminal Justice Committee to question Roberson next week all but ensured that the execution would not go ahead as scheduled on Thursday at 6 p.m . Instead, it set off an agonizing waiting game at the Huntsville prison that houses the death chamber.

Roberson had previously been picked up from Texas’ death row in Livingston for the 43-mile journey to Huntsville.

Roberson’s sister-in-law, Jennifer Roberson, told CNN while waiting in Huntsville that the inmate was “angry, heartbroken and angry” that the courts had decided not to entirely thwart his planned execution.

“This is an injustice and his blood rests on Abbott and Anderson County,” she told the cable channel, referring to the county where Roberson was convicted 21 years ago. “This is not a legal execution, this is murder.”

She said Roberson spent time in prison Thursday morning with his wife, whom he married in recent years.

The U.S. Supreme Court did not issue an opinion explaining the reasons for declining to intervene. However, in a written statement, Sotomayor was moved by Roberson’s attorney’s arguments that her client had been wrongfully convicted. She also pointed out that the case before the Supreme Court did not contain a “vailable federal claim,” meaning the justices were unable to intervene.

“Few cases require such relief more urgently than one in which the defendant has seriously demonstrated his actual innocence, as Roberson has done here,” Sotomayor wrote. “Nevertheless, this court can only grant a stay if Roberson can demonstrate a ‘substantial prospect of success on the merits’ of a federal lawsuit.”

More: Texas judge grants subpoena request, potentially delaying Robert Roberson’s scheduled execution

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In a surprising move, the Texas Supreme Court halted Roberson’s execution

The all-Republican court’s decision comes in response to a unique legal maneuver in which a House committee voted to subpoena Roberson after his scheduled death.

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In a surprising move, the Texas Supreme Court halted Roberson’s execution

The all-Republican court’s decision comes in response to a unique legal maneuver in which a House committee voted to subpoena Roberson after his scheduled death.

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