Mr. Roberson, who has long main­tained his inno­cence, was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on Thursday, October 17th at 6 pm Central Time. A Travis County dis­trict court judge entered a tem­po­rary restrain­ing order stay­ing his exe­cu­tion just 90 min­utes before the exe­cu­tion at the request of Texas leg­is­la­tors, who had sub­poe­naed Mr. Roberson to tes­ti­fy at a hear­ing next Monday. They had asked the dis­trict court to enjoin the State of Texas from exe­cut­ing Mr. Roberson. The State of Texas imme­di­ate­ly appealed the dis­trict court’s order to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which grant­ed the State’s motion. The leg­is­la­tors then appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, which entered a tem­po­rary stay of exe­cu­tion around 10 pm Central Time, direct­ing a low­er court to resolve the sep­a­ra­tion-of-pow­ers ques­tion raised by the Texas leg­is­la­tors. The Court’s order is HERE. 

Earlier on the same day, the United States Supreme Court denied Mr. Roberson’s request for a stay. Justice Sotomayor issued a dis­sent in which she urged Governor Abbott to grant a 30-day reprieve.

Statement from Gretchen Sween, attor­ney for Robert Roberson:
​“The vast team fight­ing for Robert Roberson – peo­ple all across Texas, the coun­try, and the world – are elat­ed tonight that a con­tin­gent of brave, bipar­ti­san Texas law­mak­ers chose to dig deep into the facts of Robert’s case that no court had yet con­sid­ered and rec­og­nized that his life was worth fight­ing for. He lives to fight anoth­er day and hopes that his expe­ri­ence can help improve the integri­ty of our crim­i­nal legal sys­tem. Thank you to all who have sup­port­ed Robert, an inno­cent man on Texas’s death row.”

Read more about Robert Roberson’s case HERE and HERE.