AUSTIN - The Texas Supreme Court has found lawmakers can't use any means necessary to delay the execution of a death-row inmate.
The court on Nov. 15 issued its ruling in a unique situation in which a House of Representatives committee issued a subpoena to Robert Roberson, who was scheduled to be executed a day after the committee requested his testimony on a post-execution date.
Courts and the executive branch had refused to overturn Roberson's sentence before the House committee stepped in, creating a conflict among the three branches of government.
"(T)he committee's authority to compel testimony does not include the power to override the scheduled legal process leading to an execution," Justice Evan Young wrote.
"We do not repudiate legislative investigatory power, but any testimony relevant to a legislative task here could have been obtained long before the death warrant was issued - or even afterwards, but before the execution."
Roberson's execution was scheduled for last month. Twenty-one years ago, he was sentenced to death for the killing of his 2-year-old daughter, though The Innocence Project has taken up his cause.
Roberson, who is autistic, was tried for shaking his daughter and killing her. Roberson has argued his daughter died of pneumonia that progressed to septic shock.
His cause drew support from several groups, plus 84 Texas lawmakers and novelist John Grisham. The House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence issued its subpoena on Oct. 16 for Roberson to testify - the day before his scheduled execution. It requested his appearance on Oct. 21, leading to the court battle.
All of this created an "as-yet-unresolved" question, Justice Young wrote.
"(T)he legislature's power to subpoena witnesses to investigate facts that could inform future legislation is beyond question," he added.
"But it is not absolute, at least in the sense that it does not automatically displace, supersede, or eliminate the other equally valid and well-established powers at issue: the judiciary's exclusive authority to render judgment and pass sentence under law, the executive branch's exclusive authority to grant various forms of clemency... and an executive-branch agency's duty to comply with a valid warrant of execution."
All of this delay in Roberson's execution creates a period in which if, the legislature truly wants his testimony, it will be allowed to seek it before his death is rescheduled.