AUSTIN, Texas — Death row inmate Robert Roberson, who faces the prospect of becoming the first person in the U.S. to be executed for a “shaken baby” death, was a no-show Friday at a hearing before a Texas state House committee where he was supposed to testify.
"My expectation was that we would have Robert Roberson here to speak with us, but that won't be happening today," Rep. Joe Moody, the committee chair, said.
Roberson "was prevented from being here," Moody said. "The effort here has been by some to hide him and silence him because his testimony would be instructive, because it would be helpful."
Instead, the committee heard testimony from Josh Burns, a former airline pilot who served a year in prison after he was falsely accused of abusing his daughter.
"I am here to speak for Robert today whose life hangs in the balance over junk science and the shaken baby hypothesis," he said.
There was no immediate response from the Texas state's attorney general's office, but the developments came a day after that office filed a motion allowing the prison system to disregard the subpoena for Roberson to be transported to the state capital Austin for the hearing Friday.
The AG’s office also objected in October when state lawmakers issued a similar subpoena for Roberson to testify in Austin, a legal gambit that wound up halting his Oct. 17 execution with only hours to spare.
Roberson, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, had been summoned to testify in his case as it relates to a 2013 “junk science” law allowing Texas inmates to potentially challenge convictions based on advances in forensic science.
This time, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was ordered to transport Roberson from the prison north of Houston where he is being held to the state Capitol in Austin.
The office of Attorney General Ken Paxton objected, saying, “In addition to presenting serious security risks, the subpoena is procedurally defective and therefore invalid as it was issued in violation of the House Rules, the Texas Constitution, and other applicable laws.”
Previously, Paxton said in October that there were safety concerns with having Roberson brought before lawmakers and cited a lack of a state facility near Austin that could temporarily house him. The state had said he could testify virtually.
In response, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence offered a compromise that its members could meet with Roberson in prison. They said they were uncomfortable with the video option, given his autism and unfamiliarity with the technology. The meeting, however, never happened.
House committee lawmakers decided to issue a second subpoena after the attorney general’s office challenged the initial one. The original subpoena was an unusual legal gambit that set off a flurry of litigation that put Roberson's execution on hold mere hours before he was to be executed on Oct. 17.
The House committee members said they still want Roberson to be able to testify in his case as it relates to a 2013 "junk science" law that allows Texas inmates to potentially challenge convictions based on advances in forensic science.
"Robert's testimony will shed important light on some of the problems with our 'junk science writ' process, a legal procedure Texas lawmakers expected to provide reconsideration in cases like this one," committee chair and state Rep. Joe Moody, a Democrat, and committee member and state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican, said in a statement. "His perspective will be especially valuable as a person on the autism spectrum whose neurodivergence profoundly influenced both his case and his access to justice on appeal."
Last month, the Texas Supreme Court sided with state officials, saying lawmakers could not use their subpoena power to effectively halt an execution. However, they said the committee members could still compel Roberson to testify.
The attorney general's office has not set a new execution date.
Meanwhile, the lawmakers and Paxton have sparred publicly over Roberson's case, with each accusing the other of "misrepresenting" details that led to his conviction in his daughter’s death and releasing their own reports in recent weeks rebutting each other’s claims.
Doctors and law enforcement quickly concluded Nikki was killed as a result of a violent shaking episode. But Roberson’s defense says a new understanding of so-called shaken baby syndrome shows that other medical conditions can be factors in a child's death, as they believe it was in Nikki’s.
Amy Calvin reported from Austin, Texas; Natalie Obregon from Bradenton, Florida; and Erik Ortiz and Corky Siemaszko from New York City.
