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Supreme Court denies stay, TRO granted as Texas inmate’s execution nears – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Supreme Court denies stay, TRO granted as Texas inmate’s execution nears – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Despite credible evidence of his innocence, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday denied Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson III a stay, saying it was up to Gov. Greg Abbott to stop the execution with a 30-day stay. Meanwhile, a district judge in Austin granted a TRO on behalf of members of the Texas House of Representatives on Thursday afternoon, but it is unclear whether that will be enough to stop the execution.

Roberson was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection for the death of his two-year-old daughter in 2002 around 6 p.m.

Roberson was convicted in 2003 of shaking his daughter Nikki Curtis to death. The diagnosis was shaken baby syndrome. Roberson’s lawyers said new evidence suggests it did not kill the little girl and that her life should be spared.

On Wednesday, the Texas Board of Paroles and Pardons declined to recommend clemency, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott cannot grant it without that recommendation. Abbott could still issue a one-time 30-day stay of execution, and although he was active on social media Thursday, he has remained silent about the impending execution.

In a daylong hearing Wednesday, the Texas House Criminal Justice Committee unanimously passed a motion to subpoena Roberson after hours of testimony from experts who recently reviewed his 2003 conviction. The committee found that relevant scientific evidence is available today that was not available at the time of Roberson’s trial and would be admissible under current rules.

But the summons alone was not enough to stop the execution. House members on the committee filed a TRO Thursday to prevent the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from proceeding with the execution until the subpoena can be carried out and Roberson testifies in a hearing next week. A district judge granted this TRO, but it remains unclear whether it is enough to stop the execution.

NBC 5 asked the TDCJ if the execution was delayed pending an appeal, but it did not respond.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office was expected to immediately appeal the TRO.

An appeals attorney who spoke to NBC 5 said there is also a question of whether a Travis County District Court judge could issue an order for people in Huntsville, where the state’s executions take place.

Meanwhile, the United States Supreme Court said Thursday that it could not grant a stay in the case. Judge Sonia Sotomayor said Roberson’s only option for a reprieve was the governor, who has the power to grant pardons and delay executions.

“A 30-day executive stay would allow the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to reexamine the evidence of Roberson’s actual innocence. That could prevent a miscarriage of justice: the execution of a man who has provided credible evidence of actual innocence,” Sotomayor wrote.

If executed, Roberson would be the first person in the United States to be executed for murder linked to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.