Gov. Greg Abbott is taking a position in the case of death row inmate Robert Roberson. On Monday, Abbott criticized a bipartisan group of Texas legislators for an unprecedented tactic they employed last week – issuing a subpoena to compel Roberson’s appearance before the House of Representatives’ Jurisprudence Committee.
The subpoena caused the Texas Supreme Court to cancel Roberson’s execution on Oct. 17, four hours after it was supposed to occur. James Sullivan, Abbott’s attorney, filed a brief on Oct. 21 arguing the subpoena undermines the governor’s clemency powers. “Unless the Court rejects that tactic, it can be repeated in every capital case, effectively rewriting the Constitution to reassign a power given only to the Governor,” Sullivan wrote.
Roberson was expected to appear before the committee on Monday but didn’t after Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that transporting him from Huntsville to the Capitol would present security issues. The hearing went on anyway, with co-Chair Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, saying that prison officials had offered to make Roberson available through an online video conference but that the committee had rejected the proposal.
“That’d be perfectly reasonable for most inmate witnesses,” Moody explained. “But Robert is a person with autism who has significant communication challenges, which was a core issue that impacted him at every stage of our justice system. He’s also spent most of the last two decades alone, locked away from the modern technology we now take for granted. Video conference is poorly suited for Robert.” Moody said the Jurisprudence Committee is negotiating with the attorney general to bring Roberson before the committee in person.
“If [other evidence] had been told to us, I would have had a different opinion and I would have found him not guilty.” – Terre Compton, one of the jurors at Robert Roberson’s trial
After comments from other committee members, the hearing got underway, with eight witnesses testifying deep into the evening that Roberson is innocent of murdering his 2-year-old daughter Nikki 20 years ago in Palestine, Texas. Phillip McGraw, the TV personality known as Dr. Phil, said he has read the transcript from the murder trial and counted 47 references to shaken baby syndrome, the dubious medical hypothesis that prosecutors used to convict Roberson, before he stopped keeping count. “I am 100% convinced that we are facing a miscarriage of justice here,” McGraw said. “I do not believe that Mr. Roberson has had due process in this case.”
The novelist John Grisham followed, praising the committee for its actions last week. “You literally saved an innocent man’s life,” he said. “You took a bold stand against injustice at the precise moment when the courts and the leaders of the state seemed hellbent on executing Robert.”
Terre Compton, one of the jurors at Roberson’s trial, also spoke. “Everything that was presented to us was all about shaken baby syndrome,” Compton said. “That was what our decision was based on. Nothing else was presented for us to consider. If [other evidence] had been told to us, I would have had a different opinion and I would have found him not guilty.”
This article appears in October 25 • 2024.
