STORY: "The Texas Supreme Court blocks Robert Roberson's execution," by Reportersr David Martin Davies, and Dan Katz, on September 18, 2024
PHOTO CAPTION: "Texas lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson at a prison in Livingston, Texas, on Friday, Sept. 27. Roberson was scheduled for execution in October after being convicted in the death of his infant daughter."
GIST: An unusual legal move bought more time for a Texas man who was set to be executed on Thursday evening.
A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, who said Robert Roberson was actually innocent and shouldn’t be executed, issued a subpoena for the death row inmate.
Roberson was convicted of the capital murder of his 2-year-old daughter in 2002. Prosecutors said she died from shaken baby syndrome but new evidence showed she died from pneumonia and not abuse. That new evidence was not considered in any of his rejected appeals.
"For over 20 years, Robert Roberson has spent 23.5 hours of every single day in solitary confinement in a cell no bigger than the closets of most Texans, longing and striving to be heard. And while some courthouses may have failed him, the Texas House has not." said Texas Reps. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) and Joe Moody (D-El Paso) in a joint statement.
The lawmakers said they subpoenaed Roberson to hear his testimony on Texas capital punishment. Roberson was scheduled to testify on Monday, Oct. 21, several days after the scheduled execution of 6 p.m. Thursday.
Just 90 minutes before the death warrant was to be carried out, a Travis County judge presided over a court hearing to decide which carried more weight and should be honored — a Texas legislative subpoena or a death warrant for execution.
Judge Jessica Mangrum granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the execution. This began a night of legal limbo for Roberson.
The state, intent on going through with the execution, succeeded in having Mangrum's restraining order overruled by the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals.
The lawmakers then appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, arguing their effort to subpoena Roberson was a civil matter. The state's highest court agreed.
"Whether the legislature may use its authority to compel the attendance of witnesses to block the executive branch’s authority to enforce a sentence of death is a question of Texas civil law, not its criminal law," wrote Justice Evan Young."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
- SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
