Will a Texas death row inmate’s life be spared?

In a stunning chain of events, a man scheduled for execution was granted an eleventh-hour stay by the Texas Supreme Court. But he’s not out of the woods yet.

Robert Roberson, 57, would be the first American ever executed for murder related to the so-called “shaken baby syndrome.”

He was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday evening and was spared for now by Texas lawmakers and the state Supreme Court.

What happens next could lead to either another execution or an extremely rare act of clemency in the state that is leading the way for the death penalty in the United States.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), Texas has executed 591 people since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

That’s more than a third of the 1,602 executions carried out nationwide.

During that same period, the state granted clemency only three times, according to DPIC figures.

Roberson – who was convicted in the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis – hopes to be the fourth Texan to receive leniency despite losing several appeals in state courts.

On Wednesday, the state parole board rejected Roberson’s request for clemency, recommending that his sentence not be commuted to life in prison and that his execution be postponed.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has the power to stop an execution regardless of the panel’s recommendation, also declined to do so. In nearly a decade as the state’s leader, Abbott has only commuted a sentence once.

But also on Wednesday, in response to calls to save Roberson’s life, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Texas House of Representatives issued a subpoena for him to testify before their panel next week.

Then, about 90 minutes before Roberson’s scheduled execution, the House Criminal Justice Committee filed a temporary restraining order against the state, forcing it to pause the proceedings.

Although a divided Texas Criminal Appeals Court rejected the order, lawmakers called on the Texas Supreme Court to intervene.

The execution was immediately halted so Roberson could sit before the House panel.

The hearing is currently scheduled to take place on Monday at noon local time in Austin, the state capital.

The five Republicans and four Democrats on the committee will hear from Roberson and others about how the state’s junk science law – which allows inmates to challenge convictions based on later discredited scientific findings – may have affected his case.

“For over 20 years, Roberson has spent 23.5 hours every day in solitary confinement in a cell no larger than most Texans’ closets, longing to be heard,” committee members Joe Moody and Jeff Leach wrote in a joint statement on Thursday evening.

“And while some courthouses may have failed him, the Texas House has not.”

Roberson has long maintained his innocence and his lawyers say his daughter suffered from several health problems before her death, including side effects from prescribed medications unsuitable for a toddler and acute pneumonia that progressed to sepsis.

Advocates also said manifestations of Roberson’s autism, which went undiagnosed until 2018, were used against him in the criminal investigation.

Brian Wharton, the lead investigator in the case, is among those supporting a clemency petition, writing in a letter that “my involvement in it will haunt him forever.” [Roberson’s] Arrest and prosecution. He is an innocent man.”

But prosecutors contend Roberson is guilty of murder and there is evidence that Nikki Curtis was shaken and abused by her father.

“Everything he continues to complain about has been litigated in state and federal courts, and each court has rejected his arguments,” they wrote earlier this month.