A Texas judge has granted a temporary injunction, delaying 57-year-old Robert Roberson’s execution in a shocking move hours before he was to be put to death Thursday.
A Texas judge has granted a temporary injunction delaying the execution of a death row inmate, who faced execution for the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, FOX 7 Austin reported.
Robert Roberson, 57, was scheduled to be executed Thursday evening, but hours before he was to receive a lethal injection, a Travis County judge ruled that he would be allowed to testify in his case next week.
The decision came after a Texas House committee issued a subpoena for Roberson on Wednesday night.
Roberson was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine.
The toddler was diagnosed with “shaken baby syndrome,” but experts, lawmakers and the lead detective in the girl’s case say the science supporting Roberson’s death sentence no longer holds up — and the state’s “junk science” law should have already halted his execution.
Roberson’s supporters say doctors misdiagnosed Curtis’ injuries as being related to shaken baby syndrome and that new evidence has shown the girl died not from abuse, but from complications related to severe pneumonia.
Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz contributed to this report.