Death row inmate Robert Roberson claims judicial misconduct in bid for new trial
A new petition claims Anderson County judges acted unconstitutionally multiple times in both Roberson’s case and in recognizing custody of his daughter. Full Story
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![Shackled and chained, Robert Roberson is led into court by Anderson County Sheriff’s Office deputies on July 16, 2025. A new execution date of Oct. 16, 2025 was set by presiding Judge Austin Jackson of Smith County at the Anderson County Courthouse in Palestine.]()
Credit: Joel Andrews for the Texas Tribune -
U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of Texas death row inmate pushing for DNA evidence tests
Ruben Gutierrez is challenging the constitutionality of a state law that restricts death row inmates from seeking tests that he says will prove he’s not a murderer. Full Story
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![The U.S. Supreme Court building at sunset on Nov. 10, 2020.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Erin Scott -
Texas inmate executed for killing woman he set on fire inside Garland store
Matthew Johnson, who testified he did not intend to kill the elderly clerk, received the death penalty in 2013. The execution is Texas’ fourth and may be the last for 2025. Full Story
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![The Huntsville Unit Texas State Penitentiary on Jan. 31, 2024. The prison houses the state's execution chamber.]()
Credit: Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune -
Texas inmate executed for murder of ex-classmate
Moises Mendoza, who was convicted in 2005 of killing a Farmersville woman, became the third inmate Texas has put to death this year. Full Story
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![The Huntsville Unit Texas State Penitentiary houses the execution chamber of Texas and is located in Huntsville on Jan. 31, 2024.]()
Credit: Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune -
Stay granted for Texas death row inmate two days before scheduled execution
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals did not clarify why it halted the execution of David Wood in its order granting the stay. Full Story
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![The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Jan. 15, 2020.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
U.S. Supreme Court hears Texas death row inmate’s appeal for DNA test of evidence
Ruben Gutierrez wants to be able to sue prosecutors to compel them to test evidence that he says will prove he did not kill a Brownsville woman in 1998. Full Story
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![The Supreme Court building in Washington on Jan. 15, 2025.]()
Credit: Luke Johnson for The Texas Tribune -
Robert Roberson files first new appeal since his execution was delayed
The appeal includes new testimony from experts who say Roberson’s daughter died of natural causes, and cites the court’s exoneration of a man in another shaken baby syndrome case out of Dallas County. Full Story
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![Robert Roberson photographed through plexiglass at TDCJ Polunsky Unit in Livingston on Dec. 19, 2023. Texas death row prisoners are housed in Livingston but executed at the state prison in Huntsville, about 43 miles away.]()
Credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Innocence Project -
Texas executes inmate who killed two men in Killeen in 2004
In his final statement, Richard Tabler asked for forgiveness from his victims’ family members, some of whom reportedly witnessed his death. Full Story
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![The Huntsville Unit Texas State Penitentiary houses the execution chamber of Texas and is located in Huntsville on Jan. 31, 2024.]()
Credit: Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune -
Texas executes man convicted of killing Arlington pastor in 2011
Steven Lawayne Nelson maintained that he unknowingly participated in the violent church robbery but didn’t harm anyone. His execution was the state’s first for 2025. Full Story
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![Huntsville, Texas: Exteriors of the Texas State Penitentiary “Walls Unit” August 20, 2020 in Huntsville, Texas.]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune -
Death sentences and executions in Texas at record lows
Texas continues to lead other states on capital punishment. But the decline in new death sentences and executions reached a record low. Full Story
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![Protesters unload signs and speakers outside of the Huntsville Unit shortly before a scheduled execution in Huntsville on October 17, 2024.]()
Credit: Mark Felix for the Texas Tribunne -
Clemency given to seven Texans facing execution, four others
On the same day that President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of seven Texans, Gov. Greg Abbott issued his own set of pardons. Full Story
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![President Joe Biden speaks as he visits the Department of Labor for an event honoring the nation's labor history and Frances Perkins, longest serving U.S Secretary of Labor, in Washington on Dec. 16, 2024.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque -
Texas House panel may never hear Robert Roberson’s testimony after new legal move
Attorney General Ken Paxton sought to delay legal proceedings until Jan. 13 — the day before the committee disbands — even as lawmakers vowed to continue fighting to hear from Roberson. Full Story
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![Robert Roberson photographed through plexiglass at TDCJ Polunsky Unit in Livingston on Dec. 19, 2023. Texas death row prisoners are housed in Livingston but executed at the state prison in Huntsville, about 43 miles away.]()
Credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Innocence Project -
Attorney General Ken Paxton files motion to block death row inmate Robert Roberson from testifying
The motion escalates a tense standoff between Paxton and a bipartisan Texas House committee, which had subpoenaed Roberson to testify at the Capitol on Friday. Full Story
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![Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the Texas GOP Convention Thursday, May 23, 2024 in San Antonio.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
Trial judge in Robert Roberson’s death row case agrees to recusal
Senior District Judge Deborah Oakes Evans recused herself after a challenge to her impartiality over longtime relationships with case prosecutors and judges. Full Story
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![Judge Deborah Oakes Evans presides over a hearing in Palestine on Aug. 14, 2018 as Robert Roberson's attorneys seek a new trial. Roberson was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 for the murder of the murder of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Texas can schedule Robert Roberson’s execution — but lawmakers still expect his testimony first
Roberson was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in a “shaken baby” case that many say led to an innocent man’s death sentence. Full Story
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![Robert Roberson seeks a new trial for the 2003 conviction of the murder of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in Palestine, Texas on August 14, 2018.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
“Actually innocent”: Judge recommends overturning death row inmate Melissa Lucio’s conviction, sending case to Texas high court
The Cameron County judge also found the state relied on false testimony during her capital murder trial, according to court documents. Full Story
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![State Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, D-Dallas, speaks at a rally organized at Dallas City Hall to free Melissa Lucio on April 7, 2022.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ highest criminal court orders new trial for death row inmate over judge's alleged antisemitic bias
Randy Halprin was a member of a gang of prisoners known as the “Texas 7” who escaped from custody and killed an Irving police officer in 2000. Full Story
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![Randy Halprin, then 23, one of the "Texas Seven" prison escapees, is led out of the Teller County Courthouse after a extradition hearing in Cripple Creek, Colorado on Jan. 26, 2001.]()
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There are warring depictions of Robert Roberson’s murder case. Here’s what to know.
Even before the Texas man’s death sentence became a political lightning rod, law enforcement and medical experts had differing opinions on the evidence that convicted him. Full Story
![Robert Roberson photographed through plexiglass at TDCJ Polunsky Unit in Livingston on Dec. 19, 2023. Texas death row prisoners are housed in Livingston but executed at the state prison in Huntsville, about 43 miles away.]()
Credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Innocence Project -
Ken Paxton calls on Rep. Jeff Leach to resign over texts to judge in Robert Roberson case
The AG also said he’d make a criminal referral against the lawmaker, who apologized for texting a Court of Criminal Appeals judge about a new trial for the death row inmate. Full Story
![Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the Texas GOP Convention Thursday, May 23, 2024 in San Antonio.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
Ken Paxton resisting Texas House members’ bid to hear Robert Roberson’s testimony
Members of a Texas House committee say in a Texas Supreme Court filing that Paxton’s office is blocking the death row inmate from complying with a legislative subpoena. Full Story
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![The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence meets to consider the death penalty imposed on Robert Roberson, on death row for the death of his daughter, on Oct. 21, 2024. At issue is Roberson's conviction based on a diagnosis of "shaken baby syndrome," now discredited as "junk science" and specifically rejected by Texas law.]()
Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune