Texas Supreme Court halts man's execution after last-minute appeal. Here's what happened

The Supreme Court of the US state of Texas halted the Thursday (Oct 17) execution ofa man who would have become the first person in the countryput to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

A report by the news agency Associated Press on Friday said that supporters ofRobert Roberson turned to the Texas High Courtwhich normally does not get involved in criminal cases, after both the USSupreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals,earlier on Thursday rejected appeals to halt his lethal injection.

Roberson, 57,was convicted of killing his two-year-old daughter in2002. He haslong proclaimed his innocence, backed by some notable Republican lawmakers, Texas GOP megadonor and conservative activist Doug Deason and the lead detective on the case.

'Daughter did not die from abuse'

Roberson'slawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia.

The Associated Press report said that hoursafter the original execution time of 6 pmlocal time passed in Texas, Roberson had remained in a prison holding cell a few feet from the death chamber at the Walls Unit in Huntsville.

Texas GovernorGreg Abbott had authority to delay Roberson’s punishment for 30 days.

The Texas appeals court ruling was one of a flurry of legal decisions in the hours before Roberson’s scheduled lethal injection, the report said.

At the same time a state judge in Austin was issuing a temporary restraining order, the USSupreme Court refused to halt the execution, although Justice Sonia Sotomayor — in a 10-page statement about the case — urged Abbott to grant a 30-day delay.

The state’s legal fight to get the execution carried out had faced a midnight CDT deadline when the death warrant authorising Roberson’s execution would expire.

It was likely, however, the case would need to be resolved well before that since officials must conduct procedures such as attaching intravenous needles and allowing time for an injection to take effect and a physician to pronounce him dead.

'An extraordinary remedy'

On Thursday,thejudge in Austin had paused the execution after Texas lawmakers issued a subpoena for Roberson to testify in front of them next week in a last-ditch effort to pause the execution.

“This is an extraordinary remedy the Legislature is seeking. But it is not undue. The Legislature is allowed this constitutional authority,” Republican leader andTexas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee member Jeff Leach said during the hearing.

A renewed debate over shaken baby syndrome

Roberson’s case has renewed debate over shaken baby syndrome, known in the medical community as abusive head trauma.

His lawyers as well as the Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others said that hisconviction was based on faulty and now outdated scientific evidence.

The diagnosis refers to a serious brain injury caused when a child’s head is hurt through shaking or some other violent impact, like being slammed against a wall or thrown on the floor.

Roberson’s supporters don’t deny head and other injuries from child abuse are real. But they say doctors misdiagnosed his child’s injuries as being related to shaken baby syndrome and that new evidence showed that the girl died from complications related to pneumonia.

(With inputs from agencies)