Execution in Shaken Baby Case Can Continue, Texas Appeals Court Says

Robert Roberson was set to be executed on Thursday night for the death of his 2-year-old child after a brief court-ordered delay.

The state of Texas was authorized on Thursday night to resume preparations for the execution of Robert Roberson, a Texas man convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter, after a criminal appeals court tossed out a lower-court order that had caused a temporary delay.

The decision by the Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, came amid a flurry of legal maneuvers and decisions. It included a hastily convened court hearing in which members of the State House sought to halt the execution by compelling Mr. Roberson to testify at a legislative hearing on Monday.

A lower court had granted their request for a restraining order earlier in the evening, but the criminal appeals court lifted it hours later. In response, legislators filed a last-ditch motion to the Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest civil court, arguing that the matter should be decided by that court instead.

The execution by lethal injection, which was set to occur before midnight at a prison in Huntsville, Texas, would be the first of a person convicted in a shaken baby case, death penalty experts said.

Mr. Roberson’s case had been moving forward after the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles denied a request for clemency for Mr. Roberson on Wednesday.

Also on Thursday evening, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a separate order declining to stay the execution. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a statement along with the court’s order, said that while the court could not stop the execution, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas could and should grant a temporary reprieve.

“An executive reprieve of 30 days would provide the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles with an opportunity to reconsider the evidence of Roberson’s actual innocence,” the justice wrote. “That could prevent a miscarriage of justice from occurring.”

Mr. Roberson’s execution was one of two scheduled in the country on Thursday. In Alabama, officials carried out the execution of Derrick Dearman, who had admitted to killing five of his girlfriend’s relatives in 2016. Mr. Dearman, 36, died by lethal injection. He had stopped fighting his death sentence this year and said he wanted to be executed so that his victims’ family members could have justice.