{"id":1377951,"date":"2024-12-20T11:25:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T17:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1377951"},"modified":"2024-12-23T23:57:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-24T05:57:10","slug":"texas-house-panel-may-never-hear-robert-robersons-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1377951","title":{"rendered":"Texas House panel may never hear Robert Roberson\u2019s testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"PALESTINE \u2013 A Texas House Committee was left without its key witness on Friday after Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion late Thursday barring death row inmate Robert Roberson from testifying at the Capitol.The bipartisan House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence had planned to hear directly from Roberson on Friday at noon about his failed efforts to overturn his capital murder conviction using the state\u2019s junk science law, which grants new trials in cases that relied on scientific evidence that is later discredited.<\/p>\n

But Paxton\u2019s motion, which argued that the panel\u2019s subpoena to Roberson was \u201cprocedurally deficient and overly burdensome,\u201d excused the state prison system from complying with the committee\u2019s subpoena and allowing Roberson to testify in person. That left the future of Roberson\u2019s testimony unclear.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers have tried for weeks to bring him to Austin after the Texas Supreme Court noted in November that state officials should be able to produce Roberson for testimony in compliance with a subpoena that does not interfere with a scheduled execution. After the committee\u2019s first subpoena expired, it served him with another one this week.<\/p>\n

Roberson was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki, who was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome. He has argued that new scientific evidence discredits Nikki\u2019s diagnosis and shows she died of natural and accidental causes.<\/p>\n

The first subpoena from the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence seeking Roberson\u2019s testimony forced a delay of his scheduled October execution. That led to a Texas Supreme Court ruling on Nov. 15 that said a legislative subpoena of a death row inmate could not be used to postpone an execution.<\/p>\n

Roberson\u2019s execution has not yet been rescheduled. The district attorney in his case has not yet requested that the court set a new execution date, which could not land within 90 days of her request. Reps. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, and Jeff Leach, R-Plano, have accused the attorney general\u2019s office of stalling Roberson\u2019s testimony until the panel automatically dissolves next month with the start of the new legislative session.<\/p>\n

In his motion to block Roberson\u2019s testimony, Paxton asked the court to hold a hearing before it decides whether to grant his request. But he asked that the hearing not be set before Jan. 13, 2025, saying he \u201cwill be out of the country.\u201d
\nTrial judge in Robert Roberson\u2019s death row case agrees to recusal. The new legislative session starts \u2014 and the committee disbands \u2014 on Jan. 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attorney general\u2019s office knows that and is trying to delay until the start of the next session, which is just horrifying and maddening to me,\u201d Leach said at an event with the Tribune on Dec. 6.<\/p>\n

Paxton\u2019s office, which legally represents the prison system, has hamstrung earlier efforts to secure Roberson\u2019s in-person testimony by insisting that nothing legally compels the executive branch to bring him to the Capitol.<\/p>\n

Fifteen emails between Moody and Paxton\u2019s office obtained by the Tribune document the ongoing tensions between lawmakers and the executive branch over Roberson\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

In response to the committee\u2019s first subpoena, Paxton\u2019s office sunk plans for Roberson to testify at an Oct. 21 hearing in person and said that the inmate would only be permitted to appear virtually due to public safety concerns \u2014 an arrangement the panel opposed due to Roberson\u2019s autism.<\/p>\n

Instead, Moody suggested that the committee could travel to death row and take Roberson\u2019s testimony there. But after Moody adjourned the Oct. 21 hearing, Paxton\u2019s office shut that possibility down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe subpoena issued to Mr. Roberson required his testimony on Monday, and TDCJ did not impede Mr. Roberson\u2019s compliance with the subpoena, going so far as to attempt to facilitate his appearance via Zoom,\u201d Kimberly Gdula, the attorney general\u2019s chief of general litigation, wrote to Moody on Oct. 25. \u201cThe House\u2019s subpoena has now expired, and the committee has adjourned.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Texas Supreme Court issued its ruling that Roberson could testify as long as it didn\u2019t interfere with an execution, Moody asked Gdula in an email if they could reach an agreement on having Roberson testify without requiring a new subpoena.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 6, Gdula sent a series of questions and conditions, and sought to bar Moody from directly contacting the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which operates the state prisons.<\/p>\n

She asked \u201cwhy Roberson could not furnish any needed testimony through safer alternatives like remote appearance by video,\u201d and claimed that the office \u201chad no information as to what topics you intend to discuss that only Roberson would be able to provide relevant testimony on.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also wrote that representatives from the attorney general\u2019s office, the Anderson County District Attorney\u2019s office and Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s office had \u201ca right to be present at any hearing where Roberson is testifying so they may assert any objections to questions that go beyond the scope of the Committee\u2019s limited authority to question a death-row inmate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moody rejected the conditions, reiterating the committee\u2019s opposition to a virtual appearance due to Roberson\u2019s autism, referencing public materials describing the committee\u2019s reasoning in seeking Roberson\u2019s testimony and noting that the committee and TDCJ had addressed various safety and logistical issues on Oct. 18 \u2014 before Paxton\u2019s office stepped in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a subpoena, so any opinion related to \u2018the import of Roberson\u2019s testimony\u2019 does not authorize disobedience of it,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnyone may attend this public hearing, but no one will be recognized to \u2018assert any objections\u2019 because this is not an adversarial proceeding and there is no judge to whom you may object.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moody and Leach, at the Tribune\u2019s Dec. 6 event, vowed to continue fighting for Roberson despite opposition from the attorney general\u2019s office \u2014 and even through the start of a new legislative session.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not relent in the pursuit of justice for Mr. Roberson,\u201d Leach said. \u201cIf they want to thumb their nose in the face of the Legislature that egregiously and blatantly, they can be \u2014 and should be \u2014 assured that a new committee next session \u2026 will issue a new subpoena if we have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2024\/12\/20\/texas-legislature-committee-robert-roberson-death-row-testify-paxton\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PALESTINE \u2013 A Texas House Committee was left without its key witness on Friday after Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion late Thursday barring death row inmate Robert Roberson from testifying at the Capitol.The bipartisan House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence had planned to hear directly from Roberson on Friday at noon about his failed … Continue reading Texas House panel may never hear Robert Roberson\u2019s testimony<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1377958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2024\/10\/ROBERSON-199x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1377951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 00:22:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2024\/10\/ROBERSON-199x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1377951"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1378328,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377951\/revisions\/1378328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1377958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1377951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1377951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1377951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}