AUSTIN — A high-profile committee hearing at the Texas Capitol proceeded Monday without its main attraction: Robert Roberson, a man on death row whose execution was delayed last week after a bipartisan group of lawmakers issued a subpoena compelling his testimony.
Lawmakers intended for Roberson to appear in person, but objections from the state attorney general’s office derailed those plans, with behind-the-scenes negotiations failing to find a solution while the hearing’s noon start was delayed 36 minutes.
“We have an impressive slate of witnesses who I think will surprise everyone,” said Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, chairman of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. “The most important witness, of course, is Robert Roberson. I’m very disappointed to say I don’t believe that will happen today.”
Journalists and members of the public, including some of Roberson’s family, filled the hearing room to capacity Monday afternoon.
They heard several Texas lawmakers from both parties call for Roberson to be given a new trial, saying he was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki 21 years ago based on unreliable evidence of “shaken baby syndrome.” The now-discredited theory said certain injuries, now known to have multiple possible causes, were conclusive proof of child abuse.
In his opening statement, Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, said he’s come to believe Roberson is “fully innocent” yet came “within 20 minutes and 20 steps of being executed by the state of Texas just days ago.”
Legal challenges to the House subpoena, which demanded prison officials produce Roberson to testify in Austin four days after his scheduled execution, ended when the Texas Supreme Court blocked Roberson’s execution Thursday, clearing the way for Monday’s testimony.
The attorney general’s office said over the weekend Roberson could testify virtually, but Moody said that wasn’t an option because Roberson had communication challenges due to autism and has had no exposure to technology such as Zoom while imprisoned.
The panel was discussing solutions with Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, Moody said, adding later that the committee’s goal is to hear from Roberson in person, with lawmakers traveling to his prison if necessary.
“If this committee wanted to take a heavy-handed approach, there are dramatic ways that we could enforce that subpoena,” Moody said. “But we didn’t issue a subpoena to create a constitutional crisis, and we aren’t interested in escalating a division between branches of government.”
Despite Roberson’s absence, the hearing was not without star power. Phillip McGraw, known on television as Dr. Phil, was the panel’s first witness, followed by author John Grisham.
They portrayed Roberson as an innocent man who was deprived of a fair trial in 2003.
“I am 100% convinced that we’re facing a miscarriage of justice here,” said McGraw, founder of the litigation consulting firm Courtroom Sciences Inc. “I say that because I do not believe that Mr. Roberson has had due process in this case. I do not believe he has yet enjoyed a fair trial in this matter.”
Juries render verdicts based on what they see and hear, not what they don’t, he said, reasoning that Roberson’s jury likely convicted him because no alternative explanations were given for his daughter’s condition and death.
“Sometimes we forget that the goal of prosecution is to seek justice, not conviction,” he said. “We must have the courage to make choices that matter at times that count, and it is always the right time to do the right thing.”
Grisham, testifying by video, praised the committee for its novel use of the subpoena to delay Roberson’s execution last week.
“You literally saved an innocent man’s life. You took a bold stand against injustice at the precise moment when the courts and the leaders of the state seemed hell bent on executing Robert,” Grisham said. “If not for you, Robert would be in his grave today.”
The committee also heard from Terre Compton, one of the jurors who voted to convict Roberson and who said she has struggled with her role in sentencing him to death.
“I could not live with myself thinking that I had a hand in putting an innocent man to death,” said Compton, who drove from her home in Palestine, where the 69-year-old woman is raising four grandchildren.
Saying jurors were given an incomplete medical analysis of Nikki’s condition, Compton said she cried at the thought of Roberson’s execution because she would be partly responsible for his death.
“That’s how I looked at it,” she said. “My decision 21 years ago was getting ready to come to realization, and I literally, in my eyes, was killing a man that I knew was innocent, and I was going to have to live with that.”
Attorney Donald Salzman, who has done pro bono work on death penalty cases for the National Innocence Project and who reviewed Roberson’s case, said his jury was not given an accurate view of his daughter’s injuries.
Nikki’s bleeding disorder meant bruises mentioned at trial were likely inflicted by medical treatment and not by Roberson as prosecutors alleged, he said.
No jury has heard testimony from experts who later concluded that Nikki died from pneumonia and that her health problems were exacerbated by medication that made it difficult for her to breathe, all of which indicates that she died from natural causes, Salzman said.
The nine-hour hearing closed with testimony from Roberson attorney Gretchen Sween, who disputed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ handling of his case, saying the state’s highest criminal court has shown no indication of giving proper consideration to new evidence of innocence.
“There was bad science, a lot of missed bits of evidence in a tragedy and really bad prejudgment of a guy with a disability,” Sween said. “That’s what happened. But today we know so much more, but none of that has been acknowledged, which is why we’re still here litigating whether he should get a new trial.”
Staff writer Karen Brooks Harper contributed to this report.
