Dr Phillip McGraw is testifying at a Texas legislature hearing regarding the case of Robert Roberson, an autistic Texas death row inmate whose life was spared last week after lawmakers subpoenaed him to testify at a hearing on Monday.
Roberson has been blocked from appearing at the hearing in-person.
McGraw, the host of his eponymous talk show, holds a doctorate degree in clinical psychology. He’s been an advocate of Roberson and has interviewed him in prison.
“I am 100 percent convinced that we are facing a miscarriage of justice here,” McGraw told the committee. “I do not believe that Mr Roberson has had due process in this case.”
The Texas Attorney General’s Office stated over the weekend that Roberson would testify via Zoom, a decision in defiance of the subpoena issued to him by the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, which states he must appear in-person unless the parties agree to other accommodations.
Roberson refused to appear virtually for multiple reasons cited by his attorneys, including his lack of experience using Zoom and his autism spectrum disorder. His attorneys argued the move would also deprive him of legal counsel.
The Independent has emailed the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and attorney general’s office for comment. During a district court hearing last week, the attorney general’s office acknowledged that the subpoena was lawful.
The subject of the hearing is whether Article 11.073, known in Texas as the “junk science statute” is being applied in criminal cases as intended. In 2003, Roberson was convicted of capital murder in the death of his two-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis the year prior. Prosecutors claimed Roberson murdered his daughter by shaking and striking her, resulting in blunt-force trauma, otherwise known as “shaken baby syndrome.”
Roberson would’ve been the first person in the US to ever be executed in connection with the condition. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, unanimously voted against granting him clemency on Wednesday. The US Supreme Court said it couldn’t intervene.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in a pro-death penalty state issued the subpoena that same evening. A Travis County judge then granted a temporary restraining order stopping the execution.
In a dash against the clock, the Texas Attorney General’s Office appealed the court’s ruling in order to make sure the execution went ahead. The state criminal appeals court vacated the restraining order, also pressing for the execution to continue as planned. However, lawmakers who wanted to stop it then appealed that decision to the Texas Supreme Court, which granted the stay.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the only person with the ability to grant Roberson a 30-day reprieve, had not spoken out on the matter until Monday, when he asked the state Supreme Court to throw out the subpoena, stating that the power to grant clemency is his alone and lawmakers have “stepped out of line.” By issuing the subpoena, legislators effectively gave Roberson at least a 90-day stay of execution.
“If the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence thinks itself entitled to testimony from a criminal on death row, a point which is not conceded, it could have done so without erasing the authority given exclusively to the Governor,” Abbott wrote in a letter to the state’s Supreme Court.
“Only at the eleventh hour, when the Constitution empowers the Governor to make the last move, did the House Committee decide to violate the Separation-of-Powers Clause.”
The governor submitted the letter is support of a motion the attorney general filed with the Texas Supreme Court on Saturday asking to reverse the decision allowing Roberson to testify.
