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DALLAS (AP)- One of the largest solar projects in the U.S. opened in Texas on Friday, backed by what Google said is the largest solar electricity purchase it has ever made.

Google executive Ben Sloss said at the ribbon cutting, about two hours south of Dallas, that the corporation has a responsibility to bring renewable, carbon-free electricity online at the same time it opens operations that will use that power. Google expects to spend $16 billion through 2040 globally to purchase clean energy, he said.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who attended, said the solar project is a posterchild for the administration’s efforts to incentivize manufacturers and developers to locate energy projects in the U.S.

“Sometimes when you are in the middle of history, it’s hard to tell, because you are in the middle of it,” she said. “But I’m telling you right now that we are in the middle of history being made.”

SB Energy built three solar farms side by side, the “Orion Solar Belt,” in Buckholts, Texas. Combined, they will be able to provide 875 megawatts of clean energy. That is nearly the size of a typical nuclear facility. In total, Google has contracted with clean energy developers to bring more than 2,800 megawatts of new wind and solar projects to the state, which it says exceeds the amount of power required for its operations there.

Google, Amazon and Microsoft have all recently announced investments in nuclear energy to power data centers, too, as the tech giants seek new sources of carbon-free electricity to meet surging demand from data centers and artificial intelligence. Google has a commitment to get all of its electricity without contributing to climate change, regardless of time of day or whether the sun is up, but neither it nor other large companies are meeting those commitments with the rise of artificial intelligence.

The International Energy Agency forecasts that data centers’ total electricity consumption could reach more than 1,000 terawatt-hours in 2026, more than doubling from 2022. Estimates suggest one terawatt-hour can power 70,000 homes for a year.

The demand for power is also growing globally as buildings and vehicles electrify. People used more electricity than ever last year, placing strain on electric grids around the world.

In August, Google said it planned to invest more than $1 billion in Texas this year to support its cloud and data center infrastructure.

Google will use about 85% of the project’s solar power for data centers in Ellis County and for cloud computing in the Dallas region. In Ellis County, Google operates a data center campus in Midlothian and is building out a new campus in Red Oak. The rest of the solar power will go to the state’s electrical grid. Thousands of sheep graze in the area, maintaining the vegetation around the solar arrays.

“This project was a spreadsheet and a set of emails that I had been exchanging and a bunch of approvals and so on. And then you come over the rise over there and you see it laid out in front of you and it kind of takes your breath away, right? Because there’s this enormous field of solar arrays,” Sloss said during the ceremony. “And we actually collectively have done this. That is amazing.”

SB Energy said most of the solar farm components are made in the United States, and that’s only possible because the climate law formally known as the Inflation Reduction Act spurred clean energy manufacturing. The company expects the projects to be the first to qualify for an extra tax credit the law affords for using domestic content.

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HOUSTON (AP) — Robert Roberson, set to be the first person in the U.S. to be put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, was nearly out of options to stop his execution in Texas.

A state parole board, multiple lower courts and the U.S. Supreme Court had all rejected his requests to delay his lethal injection on Thursday evening for the killing of his 2-year-old daughter in 2002. And it seemed unlikely that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott would use his power to grant a one-time 30-day reprieve as he had only stopped one imminent execution in his nearly 10 years in office.

Roberson’s final hope rested with a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers who believe he is innocent and their extraordinary and unprecedented strategy to delay his execution: issuing a subpoena for him to testify before a House committee next week, which would be days after he was scheduled to die.

After several hours of legal debate Thursday evening among three different state courts, the Texas Supreme Court sided with the lawmakers and upheld a temporary restraining order that stayed the execution.

The unconventional method of using a subpoena to stop Roberson’s execution was punctuated by the delay coming from the Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest civil court and which rarely gets involved in criminal matters.

“It really is highly dramatic and something I certainly have never seen,” said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a law professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

Roberson is now set to speak before the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Monday. But beyond that, it is unclear what will happen in his case. A new execution date could be set. Roberson’s attorneys say they will use the extra time he has to fight for a new trial.

Here’s what to know about Roberson’s case and how his execution was delayed:
What was Roberson convicted of doing?
Roberson, 57, was convicted of killing of his daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine. Authorities say Curtis died from injuries related to shaken baby syndrome. Roberson’s lawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia. They say his conviction was based on flawed and now outdated scientific evidence.

The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome 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 Curtis’ injuries as being related to shaken baby syndrome and that new evidence has shown the girl died from complications related to severe pneumonia.

Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell has said the prosecution’s case showed the girl had been abused by her father.

How did Texas House committee try to stop the execution?
Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee late Wednesday decided to issue a subpoena for Roberson as a way of delaying his execution.

“This was the one of the few avenues open to them was the subpoena power that that they have,” Thompson said.

The committee’s members argued before on judge in Austin on Thursday, less than two hours before Roberson’s scheduled execution, that they needed to hear from Roberson about whether a 2013 law created to allow prisoners to challenge their convictions based on new scientific evidence was ignored in his case.

The judge sided with the lawmakers and issued a temporary restraining order that would essentially delay the execution. The order came as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Roberson’s request to stay his execution.

The judge’s order was appealed by the state to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s top criminal court, which overturned it. The lawmakers had one final move: an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court.

Thompson said the lawmakers were able to ask the Texas Supreme Court to step in because laws regarding subpoenas are civil in nature.

“I think it’s extremely unusual, but not likely to become a regular occurrence,” Thompson said.

In its ruling, the Texas Supreme Court said while it has no authority over criminal cases, the questions being raised over whether the Legislature can use its authority to compel a witness to testify and as a result block the enforcement of a death sentence is a matter civil law that will have to be decided.

“While the news from the Supreme Court is encouraging, we cannot stop advocating for Robert because of this temporary win. Despite the extraordinary efforts of our elected officials, his attorneys, medical experts and the hundreds of thousands of people who spoke out for Robert, his fate is far from certain,” the Innocence Project, which is working with Roberson’s legal team, said in a statement.

What happens next?
Roberson is scheduled to testify before the Texas House committee Monday. Once he appears before the committee, that fulfills the subpoena and there is nothing to prevent the setting of another execution date, Thompson said.

Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson’s attorneys, said Friday that Mitchell, the district attorney in Anderson County, could seek a new execution date at any time after Monday’s hearing.

But under Texas law, a new execution could not take place until about 90 days after a judge sets a new date. The earliest a new execution could be set would be in 2025, Sween said.

“We will continue to seek out avenues to get relief for Robert in the form of a new trial. But the only obvious way that can happen at this time is through the (Texas Court of Criminal Appeals), which has not yet been inclined to look at the new evidence,” Sween said in an email.

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government’s road safety agency is investigating Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents that it opened the probe on Thursday after the company reported four crashes when Teslas encountered sun glare, fog and airborne dust.

In addition to the pedestrian’s death, another crash involved an injury, the agency said.

Investigators will look into the ability of “Full Self-Driving” to “detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions, and if so, the contributing circumstances for these crashes.”

The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

A message was left early Friday seeking comment from Tesla, which has repeatedly said the system cannot drive itself and human drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.

Last week Tesla held an event at a Hollywood studio to unveil a fully autonomous robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals. Musk, who has promised autonomous vehicles before, said the company plans to have autonomous Models Y and 3 running without human drivers next year. Robotaxis without steering wheels would be available in 2026 starting in California and Texas, he said.

The investigation’s impact on Tesla’s self-driving ambitions isn’t clear. NHTSA would have to approve any robotaxi without pedals or a steering wheel, and it’s unlikely that would happen while the investigation is in progress. But if the company tries to deploy autonomous vehicles in its existing models, that likely would fall to state regulations. There are no federal regulations specifically focused on autonomous vehicles, although they must meet broader safety rules.

NHTSA also said it would look into whether any other similar crashes involving “Full Self-Driving” have happened in low visibility conditions, and it will seek information from the company on whether any updates affected the system’s performance in those conditions.

“In particular, this review will assess the timing, purpose and capabilities of any such updates, as well as Telsa’s assessment of their safety impact,” the documents said.

Tesla reported the four crashes to NHTSA under an order from the agency covering all automakers. An agency database says the pedestrian was killed in Rimrock, Arizona, in November of 2023 after being hit by a 2021 Tesla Model Y. Rimrock is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Phoenix.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety said in a statement that the crash happened just after 5 p.m. Nov. 27 on Interstate 17. Two vehicles collided on the freeway, blocking the left lane. A Toyota 4Runner stopped, and two people got out to help with traffic control. A red Tesla Model Y then hit the 4Runner and one of the people who exited from it. A 71-year-old woman from Mesa, Arizona was pronounced dead at the scene. Further details weren’t immediately available.

Tesla has twice recalled “Full Self-Driving” under pressure from NHTSA, which in July sought information from law enforcement and the company after a Tesla using the system struck and killed a motorcyclist near Seattle.

The recalls were issued because the system was programmed to run stop signs at slow speeds and because the system disobeyed other traffic laws. Both problems were to be fixed with online software updates.

Critics have said that Tesla’s system, which uses only cameras to spot hazards, doesn’t have proper sensors to be fully self driving. Nearly all other companies working on autonomous vehicles use radar and laser sensors in addition to cameras to see better in the dark or poor visibility conditions.

Musk has said that humans drive with only eyesight, so cars should be able to drive with just cameras. He has called lidar (light detection and ranging), which uses lasers to detect objects, a “fool’s errand.”

The “Full Self-Driving” recalls arrived after a three-year investigation into Tesla’s less-sophisticated Autopilot system crashing into emergency and other vehicles parked on highways, many with warning lights flashing.

That investigation was closed last April after the agency pressured Tesla into recalling its vehicles to bolster a weak system that made sure drivers are paying attention. A few weeks after the recall, NHTSA began investigating whether the recall was working.

NHTSA began its Autopilot crash investigation in 2021, after receiving 11 reports that Teslas that were using Autopilot struck parked emergency vehicles. In documents explaining why the investigation was ended, NHTSA said it ultimately found 467 crashes involving Autopilot resulting in 54 injuries and 14 deaths. Autopilot is a fancy version of cruise control, while “Full Self-Driving” has been billed by Musk as capable of driving without human intervention.

The investigation that was opened Thursday enters new territory for NHTSA, which previously had viewed Tesla’s systems as assisting drivers rather than driving themselves. With the new probe, the agency is focusing on the capabilities of “Full Self-Driving” rather than simply making sure drivers are paying attention.

Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said the previous investigation of Autopilot didn’t look at why the Teslas weren’t seeing and stopping for emergency vehicles.

“Before they were kind of putting the onus on the driver rather than the car,” he said. “Here they’re saying these systems are not capable of appropriately detecting safety hazards whether the drivers are paying attention or not.”

MIDLOTHIAN (AP) — One of the largest solar projects in the U.S. opened in Texas on Friday, backed by what Google said is the largest solar electricity purchase it has ever made.

Google executive Ben Sloss said at the ribbon cutting, about two hours south of Dallas, that the corporation has a responsibility to bring renewable, carbon-free electricity online at the same time it opens operations that will use that power. Google expects to spend $16 billion through 2040 globally to purchase clean energy, he said.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who attended, said the solar project is a posterchild for the administration’s efforts to incentivize manufacturers and developers to locate energy projects in the U.S.

“Sometimes when you are in the middle of history, it’s hard to tell, because you are in the middle of it,” she said. “But I’m telling you right now that we are in the middle of history being made.”

SB Energy built three solar farms side by side, the “Orion Solar Belt,” in Buckholts, Texas. Combined, they will be able to provide 875 megawatts of clean energy. That is nearly the size of a typical nuclear facility. In total, Google has contracted with clean energy developers to bring more than 2,800 megawatts of new wind and solar projects to the state, which it says exceeds the amount of power required for its operations there.

Google, Amazon and Microsoft have all recently announced investments in nuclear energy to power data centers, too, as the tech giants seek new sources of carbon-free electricity to meet surging demand from data centers and artificial intelligence. Google has a commitment to get all of its electricity without contributing to climate change, regardless of time of day or whether the sun is up, but neither it nor other large companies are meeting those commitments with the rise of artificial intelligence.

The International Energy Agency forecasts that data centers’ total electricity consumption could reach more than 1,000 terawatt-hours in 2026, more than doubling from 2022. Estimates suggest one terawatt-hour can power 70,000 homes for a year.

The demand for power is also growing globally as buildings and vehicles electrify. People used more electricity than ever last year, placing strain on electric grids around the world.

In August, Google said it planned to invest more than $1 billion in Texas this year to support its cloud and data center infrastructure.

Google will use about 85% of the project’s solar power for data centers in Ellis County and for cloud computing in the Dallas region. In Ellis County, Google operates a data center campus in Midlothian and is building out a new campus in Red Oak. The rest of the solar power will go to the state’s electrical grid. Thousands of sheep graze in the area, maintaining the vegetation around the solar arrays.

“This project was a spreadsheet and a set of emails that I had been exchanging and a bunch of approvals and so on. And then you come over the rise over there and you see it laid out in front of you and it kind of takes your breath away, right? Because there’s this enormous field of solar arrays,” Sloss said during the ceremony. “And we actually collectively have done this. That is amazing.”

SB Energy said most of the solar farm components are made in the United States, and that’s only possible because the climate law formally known as the Inflation Reduction Act spurred clean energy manufacturing. The company expects the projects to be the first to qualify for an extra tax credit the law affords for using domestic content.

WASHINGTON – The Dallas Morning News reports that when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop Texas from executing death row inmate Robert Roberson III, the Thursday evening ruling included sharp words from Justice Sonia Sotomayor. It was not the first time Sotomayor criticized the way Texas and the courts have handled death penalty cases. Roberson was convicted of capital murder in 2003 after his daughter died of what medical experts believed to be a case of shaken baby syndrome. Defense lawyers, backed by a bipartisan group of state lawmakers, pressed to delay the execution, arguing Roberson’s conviction was based on debunked theories of shaken baby syndrome and that he is likely innocent. When the Supreme Court rejected Roberson’s request for a stay of execution, Sotomayor cited a precedent establishing that the justices have “no power to tell state courts how they must write their opinions.”

“Nevertheless, it is notable that the [Texas Court of Criminal Appeals] decisions in this case do not address the whole of Roberson’s evidence of actual innocence,” she wrote. Sotomayor also criticized the Texas appeals court for inconsistent rulings on cases involving shaken baby syndrome. “The TCCA just this week granted a new trial to Andrew Wayne Roark, a non-capital defendant whose child-abuse conviction rested on the same shaken-baby-syndrome testimony, from the same expert witness, that led to Roberson’s conviction,” she wrote. “When Roberson sought a stay of execution based on the argument the TCCA credited in Roark, the TCCA summarily denied relief.” Roberson filed his fourth post-conviction appeal after the Roark ruling, Sotomayor wrote, “illustrating in detail that the testimony as to shaken-baby syndrome in Roark had been nearly indistinguishable from the testimony in his case.” Even so, she wrote, the Court of Criminal Appeals voted 5-4 to deny relief. Sotomayor acknowledged Roberson’s request for a stay lacked a “cognizable federal claim” for the court to act upon but said “few cases more urgently call for such a remedy than one where the accused has made a serious showing of actual innocence, as Roberson has here.”

DALLAS – WFAA reports that the Texas Department of Agriculture has authorized an executive order allowing farmers to tap the Rio Grande for irrigation. On Thursday, TDOA Commissioner Sid Miller issued the order following heavy rainfall in Mexico. According to a release from the TDOA, that deluge has caused significant runoff causing large amounts of freshwater to flow into the bay—wasting it. Rather than letting that water go to waste, Miller’s executive order allows farmers in the Rio Grande Valley to use it for watering their crops. Though Miller deemed the action justified in his statement, it comes in conflict with an 80-year-old agreement between the U.S. and Mexico—the 1944 Water Treaty. The treaty operates on a five-year cycle, where the U.S. delivers water to Mexico in the West via the Colorado River and Mexico delivers the U.S. water in the East via the Rio Grande. We’re in the fourth year of that cycle, and Mexico will likely be at a deficit with the water it owes the U.S.

Historically, Mexico has not held up its end of the deal, underdelivering on its annual obligation of 350,000 acre-feet of water. According to the U.S. Section of the IBWC, Mexico has fallen behind on its payments to the tune of 750,000 acre-feet of water. That has put farmers in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley operating with a limited water supply. “Enough is enough,” said Commissioner Miller in a release. “We’re done sitting around waiting for someone else to act. There is no reason the water overflow south of the Amistad and Falcon international reservoirs should go down the Rio San Juan to the Rio Grande and be wasted. The water belongs in the hands of those who need it most, not lost to the bay.” Miller’s order has no expiration, which could lead to further water disputes between the U.S. and Mexico in the future.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Afghan man who is accused of plotting an Election Day attack in the U.S. was ordered Thursday to remain in custody as officials disclosed that he had previously worked as a security guard for an American military installation in Afghanistan.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Suzanne Mitchell in Oklahoma City issued her ruling after hearing testimony from an FBI special agent that Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City, and his brother-in-law, a juvenile, took steps to obtain AK-47 rifles and ammunition and planned to carry out an attack targeting large crowds on Election Day next month. Mitchell also determined there was probable cause to bind Tawhedi over for trial.

FBI agent Derek Wiley testified that Tawhedi also is linked to an investigation in France that led to the arrests this month of three people, including two of Tawhedi’s brothers, who authorities say were plotting a terrorist attack in that country. One of those arrested in France, a 22-year-old Afghan who had residency papers in France, was being investigated for a suspected plan to attack people in a soccer stadium or shopping center.

Authorities say both Tawhedi and those arrested in France were inspired by Islamic State ideology.

The Justice Department said earlier that Tahwedi had entered the U.S. on a special immigrant visa in September 2021 shortly after Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul was captured by the Taliban, and had been on parole pending a determination of his immigration status. In court Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Dillon told the judge that Tawhedi had been temporarily allowed into the U.S. while he had a pending application for resident status, but that his parole status has since been revoked.

“Were he to be released today, he would be unlawfully in the United States,” Dillon said.

Tawhedi, bearded and with dark tousled hair, was led into the courtroom with his hands shackled around his waist and flanked by two U.S. marshals. Both he and his attorney, Craig Hoehns, wore a headset to communicate, and a Dari language interpreter was provided by the court.

Wiley testified that Tawhedi had been under observation by federal agents for more than 40 days before his arrest on Oct. 7. He said Tawhedi subsequently admitted to investigators that he and his co-conspirator planned their attack to coincide with Election Day next month and that they expected to die as martyrs in the attack.

Wiley said Tawhedi had used the online messaging application Telegram to communicate with an account associated with the Islamic State militant organization that was directing his actions, and that Tawhedi had sworn allegiance to the group and “would do whatever they told him to.”

In arguing for home detention while awaiting trial, Hoehns suggested that the only weapon Tawhedi ever handled in the U.S. was given to him by a government informant and that Tawhedi had never been arrested or even received a traffic citation in three years in the U.S.

Hoehns said Tawhedi had worked previously as a rideshare driver in Dallas and at several oil change locations in Oklahoma City.

France’s national anti-terrorism prosecution office has previously said that its probe leading to the Afghan’s arrest was launched Sept. 27, prior to Tawhedi’s arrest in the U.S.

In a statement Wednesday, the FBI said the arrests in both countries “demonstrate the importance of partnerships to detect and disrupt potential terrorist attacks.”

“The coordination between the United States and French law enforcement contributed to these outcomes,” the FBI said.

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Associated Press writer John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.

DALLAS (AP) — Texas has sued a Dallas doctor over accusations of providing gender-affirming care to youths, marking one of the first times a state has sought to enforce recent bans driven by Republicans.

The lawsuit announced by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday alleges that Dr. May Lau, a physician in the Dallas area, provided hormones to over 20 minors in violation of a Texas ban that took effect last year.

It is the first time Texas has tried to enforce the law, said Harper Seldin, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. He also said he was not aware of other states that have tried to enforce similar bans.

“Today, enforcement begins against those who have violated the law,” Paxton’s office said in the lawsuit, which was filed in suburban Collin County.

The Texas law prevents transgender people under 18 from accessing hormone therapies, puberty blockers and transition surgeries, though surgical procedures are rarely performed on children.

Seldin said that while he couldn’t comment on the facts of this case, he said the lawsuit is the “predictable and terrifying result” of the law, which his organization tried to prevent by challenging it.

“Doctors should not have to fear being targeted by the government when using their best medical judgment and politicians like Ken Paxton should not be putting themselves between families and their doctors,” Seldin said.

Lau is an associate professor in the pediatrics department at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, according to the UT Southwestern website. The lawsuit said she has hospital privileges at two area Children’s Health hospitals.

The lawsuit accuses her of “falsifying medical records, prescriptions, and billing records to represent that her testosterone prescriptions are for something other than transitioning a child’s biological sex or affirming a child’s belief that their gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex.”

Paxton is asking the court for an injunction against Lau and for her to be fined as much as $10,000 per violation.

Lau nor UT Southwestern immediately replied to requests for comment on Thursday. Children’s Health said in a statement that it “follows and adheres to all state health care laws.”

At least 26 states have adopted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of those states face lawsuits. Federal judges have struck down the bans in Arkansas and Florida as unconstitutional, though a federal appeals court has stayed the Florida ruling. A judge’s orders are in place to temporarily block enforcement of the ban in Montana. New Hampshire restrictions are to take effect in January.

The lawsuit comes just weeks before an election in which Republicans have used support of gender-affirming health care as a way to attack their opponents. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has repeatedly blasted his Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, for his support of transgender rights.

The Texas ban was signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who was the first governor to order the investigation of families of transgender minors who receive gender-affirming care.

HUNTSVILLE (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court halted Thursday night’s scheduled execution of a man who would have become the first person in the U.S. put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

The late-night ruling to spare for now the life of Robert Roberson, who was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002, capped a flurry of last-ditch legal challenges and weeks of public pressure from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers who say he is innocent and was sent to death row based on flawed science.

In the hours leading up to the ruling, Roberson had been confined to a prison holding cell a few feet from America’s busiest death chamber at the Walls Unit in Hunstville, waiting for certainty over whether he would be taken to die by lethal injection.

“He was shocked, to say the least,” said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Amanda Hernandez, who spoke with Roberson after the court stayed his execution. “He praised God and he thanked his supporters. And that’s pretty much what he had to say.”

She said Roberson would be returned to the Polunsky Unit, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) to the east, where the state’s male death row is located.

Roberson, 57, was convicted of killing of his daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine. His lawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia.

Order capped a night of last-minute maneuvers
It is rare for the Texas Supreme Court — the state’s highest civil court — to get involved in a criminal matter.

But how the all-Republican court wound up stopping Roberson’s execution in the final hours underlined the extraordinary maneuvers used by a bipartisan coalition of state House lawmakers who have come to his defense.

Rejected by courts and Texas’ parole board in their efforts to spare Roberson’s life, legislators on Wednesday tried a different route: issuing a subpoena for Roberson to testify before a House committee next week, which would be days after he was scheduled to die. The unusual plan to buy time, some of them conceded, had never been tried before.

They argued that executing Roberson before he could offer subpoenaed testimony would violate the Legislature’s constitutional authority. Less than two hours before Roberson’s execution, a judge in Austin sided with lawmakers and paused the execution, but that was then reversed by an appeals panel. The Texas Supreme Court then weighed in with its order, ending a night of uncertainty.

Roberson is scheduled to testify before the committee Monday.

“This is an innocent man. And there’s too much shadow of a doubt in this case,” said Democratic state Rep. John Bucy. “I agree this is a unique decision today. We know this is not a done deal. He has a unique experience to tell and we need to hear that testimony in committee on Monday.”
Governor and US Supreme Court did not move to halt execution

Gov. Greg Abbott had authority to delay Roberson’s punishment for 30 days. Abbott has halted only one imminent execution in nearly a decade as governor and has not spoken publicly about the case.

Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Supreme 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.

Roberson’s lawyers had waited to see if Abbott would grant Roberson the one-time reprieve. It would have been the only action Abbott could take in the case as the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Wednesday denied Roberson’s clemency petition.

The board voted unanimously, 6-0, to not recommend that Roberson’s death sentence be commuted to life in prison or that his execution be delayed. All board members are appointed by the governor. The parole board has recommended clemency in a death row case only six times since the state resumed executions in 1982.

The one time Abbott halted an imminent execution was when he spared the life of Thomas Whitaker in 2018.
Lawmakers invoke Texas’ law on scientific evidence

The House committee on Wednesday held an all-day meeting on Roberson’s case. In a surprise move at the end of the hearing, the committee issued the subpoena for Roberson to testify next week.

During its meeting in Austin, the committee heard testimony about Roberson’s case and whether a 2013 law created to allow people in prison to challenge their convictions based on new scientific evidence was ignored in Roberson’s case.

Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell, whose office prosecuted Roberson, told the committee a court hearing was held in 2022 in which Roberson’s attorneys presented their new evidence to a judge, who rejected their claims.

“Based on the totality of the evidence, a murder took place here. Mr. Roberson took the life of his almost 3-year-old daughter,” Mitchell said.

Most of the members of the House committee are part of a bipartisan group of more than 80 state lawmakers, including at least 30 Republicans, who had asked the parole board and Abbott to stop the execution.

Case puts spotlight on 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 including bestselling author John Grisham say his conviction 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 Curtis’ injuries as being related to shaken baby syndrome and that new evidence has shown the girl died from complications related to severe pneumonia.

Roberson’s attorneys say his daughter had fallen out of bed in Roberson’s home after being seriously ill for a week.

Roberson’s lawyers also suggested his autism, then undiagnosed at the time of his daughter’s death, was used against him as authorities became suspicious of him because of his lack of emotion over her death. Autism affects how people communicate and interact with others.