Texas legislators work to 'push pause button' on Roberson execution
Oct. 15—The Texas House of Criminal Jurisprudence Committee will shine a light on Robert Roberson's case Wednesday in an effort to put a "pause" on his execution.
"We are going to shine a light on this case for all 31 million Texans to hear, and to watch, and to see," said District 67 State Rep. Jeff Leach. "We are hopeful that by Thursday evening we are able to secure that pause button in this case. That's the goal of what we are all doing right now and that is what we will be doing at the capitol in the coming days."
Leach was at Roberson's hearing Tuesday in Anderson County and said a hearing was set in Austin for Wednesday.
Leach is the Chairman of the House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee and a member of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.
"I share these grave concerns about this case and join with death penalty supporters, like myself, and death penalty opponents who are asking and imploring that we do everything we possibly can to just simply push the pause button before Thursday," Leach said.
Leach said he was leaving Anderson County and heading to the Texas Capitol.
"The Texas Capitol is the people's house, and that includes inmates on death row who have been, I believe in this case, wrongfully accused and convicted," he said.
Leach said he believed the House of Criminal Jurisprudence Committee would have a "robust" discussion about the case, with all options and tools on the table.
"We'll utilize whatever power we can to slow this down," Leach said.
Leach said he had not spoken to Gov. Greg Abbott, whom he has worked with on other issues, with regard to this case.
"If I know anything about the governor, he's going to take this seriously, he's very smart, and he takes his time, and he cares deeply about safeguarding the fundamental constitutional right of Texans, and that includes, most importantly, the right to life."
Leach said the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles should make its suggestion to Abbott on Tuesday.
Leach said he personally had concerns about the Roberson case and believes strongly that the junk science law that the legislators in Texas really led the charge on nationally, both Republicans and Democrats, unanimous supported and voted for have been largely ignored, not only by the trial court, but by the courts of appeals at all levels.
Leach is referring to Article 11.073, known as the Junk Science Writ, passed in 2013 by the Texas Legislature. The law was written to allow a way for prisoners to challenge their convictions if new scientific evidence weakened the integrity of their trial.
"I've been doing this long enough to know when the system fails someone and I believe strongly that the system has failed Mr. Roberson in this case and it's our obligation and our duty to speak up and step up," Leach said.
Leach said he had not heard of any push back from anyone in the Texas Legislature with regard to Wednesday's Houston Criminal Jurisprudence Committee meeting.
"The legislature has a role here and anyone who claims that the legislature doesn't doesn't understand the proper oversight role of the legislature," Leach said. "The House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee oversees the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The Judiciary Committee, which I chair, oversees the Courts of Criminal Appeals, and all district courts across the state and like I said, when we've seen such a system failure like we've seen here, it's the legislature's obligation to step up and hold public hearings and just shine a light on it and that's all we are doing with this hearing tomorrow."
Leach said he was not surprised with the outcome of Tuesday's hearing in Anderson County.
"I wasn't surprised, frankly, but you know, with all due respect to the judge who ruled and to all of our great judges across the state, we in the legislature, we pass bills and we expect them to be followed and when we see our statute, our junk science statute, which we spent a lot of time on, just being largely, I mean just totally ignore, I've got a big problem with that, but I wasn't necessarily surprised at the rulings today," Leach said.
