The Texas Supreme Court removed its hold on Robert Roberson’s execution, preventing state legislators’ attempts to stall the execution and clearing the way for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to execute him based on a “shaken baby syndrome” diagnosis for the first time, according to a Nov. 15 decision. 

The Texas Supreme Court did not consider the validity of “shaken baby syndrome” or the underlying facts of Roberson’s conviction. Instead, the court decided if the Texas House of Representatives’ investigative authority could override the executive branch’s ability to schedule an execution. In a decision written by Texas Supreme Court Justice Evan Young, the court decided the Legislature did not have the authority to delay Roberson’s execution. 

“The facts allegedly giving rise to a need for Roberson’s testimony have been public knowledge for years,” Young wrote in the decision. “The last-minute subpoena intruded on the duties of the judicial branch to adjudicate and impose penalties for offenses, as well as the duties of the executive branch to execute judicial sentences and determine the propriety of clemency.” 

The court’s decision does not stop the Texas House of Representatives from seeking Roberson’s testimony, which the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee intends to pursue, according to a statement from the committee chair Joe Moody and State Rep. Jeff Leach.

“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,” Moody and Leach said. “We look forward to welcoming Robert to the Texas Capitol, and along with 31 million Texans, finally giving him — and the truth — a chance to be heard.” 

However, Roberson’s lawyer, and UT Law alumna, Gretchen Sween is still fighting for him. She said he is innocent, and the evidence for his original conviction is flawed. 

“The ancillary benefit to Mr. Roberson of staying his execution hopefully gives time for those with power to address a grave wrong to see what is apparent to anyone who gives the medical evidence fair consideration: his daughter Nikki’s death was a tragedy, not a crime; Robert is innocent,” Sween said in an emailed statement. “Given the overwhelming new evidence of innocence, we ask the state of Texas to refrain from setting a new execution date.”