HUNTSVILLE— The Texas Supreme Court has halted the planned execution of the murder Robert Roberson Late Thursday night, hours before he was about to become the first person in the U.S. to be executed on a murder conviction linked to shaken baby syndrome.

Roberson’s Lawyers and state lawmakers late Thursday evening filed a civil appeal with the Texas Supreme Court for a stay of execution, which granted it.

“The enormous team fighting for Robert Roberson – people from across Texas, around the country and around the world – are thrilled tonight that a contingent of courageous, bipartisan Texas lawmakers have chosen to dig deep into the facts of Robert’s case, what more no court had done. considered and recognized that his life was worth fighting for,” said Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson’s attorneys. “He lives to fight another day and hopes his experience can help improve the integrity of our criminal justice system.”

Roberson issued a statement after his late-night execution by the Texas Supreme Court, praising God and thanking his supporters.

That ruling came after a legal ordeal in which the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied a request for a stay of execution earlier Thursday evening, reversing a temporary injunction from Travis County Judge Jessica Mangrum. That ruling by the state appeals court was in response to an appeal by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of Mangrum’s ruling.

In an effort to delay the execution, Roberson was subpoenaed Wednesday evening by a bipartisan group of Texas state lawmakers in the State House Criminal Justice Committee, after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Roberson’s request for clemency earlier in the day .

“The underlying criminal issue is within the jurisdiction of the Court of Criminal Appeals, but the relief sought here is civil in nature, as are the claims brought in the district court,” Texas Supreme Court Justice Evan Young wrote. opinion. “Whether the Legislature may use its authority to compel the presence of witnesses to block the executive branch’s power to enforce a death sentence is a matter of Texas civil law, not criminal law. “

The execution order expires at midnight. A state prison spokesperson previously said staff and guards were present and ready when all of Roberson’s calls were exhausted.

The U.S. Supreme Court also denied a request to stay the execution Thursday evening, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing in her ruling that the “Supreme Court is powerless to act without a credible federal claim, and because the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused recommendations recommend clemency, leaving only one remedy: an executive stay, delaying Roberson’s execution for thirty days.

Such a delay would have to come from Governor Greg Abbott.

“A 30-day executive order delay would provide the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles an opportunity to reconsider the evidence of Roberson’s actual innocence,” Sotomayor wrote. “That could prevent a miscarriage of justice: executing a man who has provided credible evidence of actual innocence.”

Mangrum’s restraining order came after Texas lawmakers issued a subpoena to 57-year-old Roberson Wednesday evening in a last-minute legal effort to stop his execution, which would be the first in the country related to a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. Roberson was scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday at 6 p.m. Central Time for the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine.

“This is an extraordinary remedy,” Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano said during arguments Thursday. “But it’s not unnecessary.”

Republicans and Democrats on the House Criminal Justice Committee believe Roberson deserves a new trial based on the medical theory that his chronically ill daughter’s death was caused by violent shaking, known as shaken baby syndrome, which many experts generally dismissed as junk. science.

Leach said more than 80 lawmakers have signed a letter “calling for the pause button on Roberson’s execution,” believing his testimony is vital.

“We have been joined by people from the far left of the Texas House to people from the far right – people we have had hard times working with on other issues,” said Rep. John Bucy (D-Williamson County) in Huntsville. Thursday. “We have come together because people in the House of Representatives who have looked closely at this and looked at the evidence know that Robert Roberson is an innocent man and this execution should not go forward.”

The summons came after the The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied a request for clemency on Wednesday for Roberson.

Over the past two days, Roberson’s attorney at The Innocence Project expressed confidence that his life would be spared.

“We have asked the Supreme Court to prevent Texas from making a devastating, irreparable mistake because Robert Roberson was denied a fair trial,” Roberson’s attorney Gretchen Sween said in response to SCOTUS’ decision. “Yesterday, the Texas House of Representatives heard a full day of testimony documenting the failure of that trial. No one who heard that testimony could be left in any doubt that Robert is completely innocent and never received a fair trial. ”

   
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