HOUSTON (AP) — A judge on Thursday granted a request from Texas lawmakers to delay the execution of a man who was scheduled to become the first person in the U.S. executed for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.
But the judge’s order was expected to be quickly appealed by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The order was granted around the same time the U.S.
Supreme Court refused to halt the execution, though Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote to urge Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to grant a 30-day delay. After a hearing, state District Judge granted a request from a Texas House committee for a temporary restraining order to delay the execution so inmate Robert Roberson could testify at a hearing next week about his case.
He was convicted in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter.. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
AP’s earlier story follows below. HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man who could be the first person in the U.S.
executed for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome is facing a lethal injection Thursday evening amid assertions by his attorneys and a diverse coalition of supporters who say he's innocent and was convicted on faulty scientific evidence. Robert Roberson waited to hear whether his execution might be stopped by either Texas Gov. Greg Abbott or the U.
S. Supreme Court — his last two avenues for a stay. He is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
A Texas House committee.