You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Juror in Robert Roberson’s 2003 Murder Trial Testifies to Texas Lawmakers After Execution Reprieve

HeadlineOct 22, 2024

Texas lawmakers heard testimony Monday in the case of death row prisoner Robert Roberson, whose execution last week was halted at the 11th hour by the Texas Supreme Court. But Roberson, who had been subpoenaed, did not appear before the Texas House Committee, after his lawyers determined it was not appropriate due to Roberson’s communication challenges linked to his autism. Roberson’s 2003 murder conviction was based on the “shaken baby syndrome” theory, which has never been scientifically validated. Among those who did testify Monday was Terre Compton, a juror in Roberson’s 2003 trial.

Terre Compton: “I started thinking back about all the things that I knew about that went on in the trial, and I just realized and I just finally came to the conclusion he was an innocent man. And I just — in good conscience, I could not live with myself thinking that I had a hand in putting an innocent man to death.”

The Texas House panel says they will seek alternatives to hear directly from Roberson as they continue to consider his case.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top