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State lawmakers to Ken Paxton: 'We won't quit' looking into Robert Roberson case

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Published  October 25, 2024 7:30am CDT
Texas
FOX 4

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: AG Ken Paxton argues for Robert Roberson’s execution

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is blasting state lawmakers for delaying the execution of a man convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter and trying to dispute claims that he was sentenced based on "junk science."

The Brief

    • The bipartisan chairs and vice chairs of the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus released a 16-page response to the Office of the Attorney General on Friday morning.
    • Paxton's office has argued that Robert Roberson should be executed after he was convicted of murdering his 2-year-old daughter.
    • A House committee stopped the execution after there were concerns about Roberson's conviction and if Texas' law on "junk science" is being properly followed.

A bipartisan group of Texas state representatives are speaking out after Attorney General Ken Paxton criticized lawmakers for defending a death row inmate.

Robert Roberson was set to be executed last week for murdering his daughter, Nikki, in East Texas in 2002.

That execution was halted so that Roberson could testify to members of the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.

Robert Roberson

Paxton accused State Rep. Joe Moody, a Democrat from El Paso who chairs the committee, and Plano Republican State Rep. Jeff Leach of lying about the details in the case.

The attorney general's office released the original autopsy report and an affidavit from the medical examiner, which says Roberson's daughter died from blunt force injuries and that he had a history of abuse.

Roberson's team claims the attorney general's office is doubling down on "grotesque misinterpretations" of Roberson's case and isn't taking into account new evidence and testimony.

On Friday morning, state lawmakers called the OAG's report "misleading and in large part simply untrue."

The 16-page response directly addresses claims made in the OAG report and details evidence and questions that have been raised in Roberson's case.

"We know that the laws our legislature created to correct those problems haven’t worked as intended for Robert and people like him. That’s why we’re here and why we won’t quit," reads the letter.

The response was signed by the bipartisan chairs, Moody and Leach, and vice chairs Rhetta Bowers (D-Garland) and Lacey Hull (R-Houston) of the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus.

While the legal battle is playing out, Roberson has not received a new date for execution.

He also still hasn’t testified before the committee because of a legal dispute over his speaking in person versus over Zoom.

Roberson's case has caught national attention.

Roberson would be the first person in the US executed for a murder conviction tied to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

The Source

  • Information in this article comes from a release by the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus, the Office of the Attorney General, hearings surrounding Robert Roberson's case and previous FOX 4 coverage.

TexasCrime and Public SafetyKen Paxton