AUSTIN – After hearing more than nine hours of testimony Monday on Robert Roberson’s case, the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee stood at ease – instead of adjourning – as lawmakers worked to get the death row inmate to appear in person in Austin.
The negotiations were not successful, Roberson remained on death row in Livingston, and the committee adjourned Tuesday afternoon without reopening the hearing.
Democratic Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso, chairman of the committee, said he will continue to press for Roberson to testify before lawmakers.
“There have been a number of very productive conversations on that front and we will continue to have those and fully anticipate that we will be able to take Mr. Roberson’s testimony in the near future, and we’re working on those details,” Moody said before adjourning.
Moody opened the hearing Monday by saying he was disappointed Roberson would not be testifying as planned but said negotiations were underway to have him transported from death row to the Capitol.
One day before Roberson’s scheduled execution Friday, the committee voted to issue a subpoena compelling him to testify Monday at the Capitol. Prison officials began working to comply with the subpoena, Roberson’s lawyer Gretchen Sween testified, before the attorney general’s office intervened, telling the committee Roberson would be available to testify via video conferencing but not in person.
“Our goal is to take his testimony,” Moody said in an interview Monday night. “Our goal is not to be wrapped up in some separation of powers litigation.”
One possibility being explored is to have committee members travel to Roberson’s prison to meet the death row inmate in person, Moody said.
“[We’re] looking for any reasonable accommodation to be able to take his testimony in person,” he said. “If that means us going to him, then that’s fine.”
Video conferencing was out of the question, Moody added, because Roberson’s autism – diagnosed after he was convicted in 2003 of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki – made remote testimony unworkable.
“We may have to go to [Roberson’s prison], but we don’t have any other notification that that’s what we’re doing,” Rep. Rhetta Bowers, D-Rowlett, said Tuesday. “If we have to, we’re prepared to do that. We would have, of course, liked it to have been worked out to where he could have been there at the Capitol yesterday.”
