A Texas House panel's quest to stop the state from killing an apparently innocent man could have a bipartisan bonding effect that knocks the steam from a leadership battle that's pit warring Republicans who want to punish Democrats against GOP members who are loyal to Speaker Dade Phelan.
The Criminal Jurisprudence Committee staged a hearing on Robert Roberson's capital murder case on Monday in Austin where daytime television star Phil McGraw, best-selling author John Grisham and a juror from the inmate's trial all testified that they believe he did not kill a young daughter by shaking her to death.
More than 80 representatives from both parties, the Texas Senate Democrats and at least one Republican from the upper chamber have endorsed the push to save Roberson from the execution that was scheduled to take place last Thursday before the House committee intervened.
The committee threw a wrench into the executioner's plans when its members voted unanimously to spooney to appear before it on Monday. Acting on a motion from the committee, the Texas Supreme Court stepped up and stopped the execution on the night that Roberson was set to die after Governor Greg Abbott refused to make the call himself. Abbott sought on Monday to have the state's highest civil court to prevent Roberson from testifying before the legislative panel. Abbott's in-house lawyer argued that the House was out of line by interfering with an executive responsibility.
But the Republican governor has generated little or no sympathy at the statehouse for his position in the case outside of actions by Attorney General Ken Paxton that kept Roberson from appearing in person to testify at the House hearing. Roberson's support has been growing exponentially amid fears that Dr. Phil articulated on a monumental miscarriage of justice in the making if Texas puts the inmate to death.
The Roberson case has brought warring House Republicans together as allies in a cause for which they've demonstrated far more passion than conventional issues that lawmakers usually face ever sparks. GOP State Rep. Jeff Leach of Allen and Democratic State Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso have led the fight for Roberson's life as the chairs of the Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee and the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee respectively. Leach is a member of Moody's committee as well.
But the committee at the center of the furor contains a pair of far-right Republicans who've been among Phelan's most strident critics in his campaign for a third term as the speaker. State Rep. Brian Harrison of Midlothian made the motion to subpoena Roberson and played a key role in the hearing with questions that he posed to witnesses who had the freedom to appear. State Rep. Nate Schatzline of Fort Worth had a significant part in the hearing on the Roberson case as well.
House leaders had viewed Harrison and Schatzline as outcast extremists until now. The Moody committee also contains State Rep. David Cook - a Mansfield Republican who's the consensus challenger in the competition for speaker with support from four dozen conservatives who've wanted to oust Phelan from the dais. But Cook has been on board with the committee's fight for justice in the Roberson case as well.
Veteran GOP State Rep. Drew Darby of San Angelo serves on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee as a Phelan ally and panel chairman himself. Darby also had a key part in the Roberson hearing. Abbott tried and failed to knock Darby out of the House in the primary election earlier this year.
more to come ...
