The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that a legislative subpoena cannot stop an execution after Republican and Democratic lawmakers say Robert Roberson is innocent he used the Roman maneuver to abort his execution at the last moment.

The ruling clears the way for Roberson’s execution to move forward, weeks after a bipartisan group of state House lawmakers bought more time by subpoenaing Roberson as he awaited extradition. the nation’s busiest death chamber.

Roberson was sentenced to death in 2003 for the murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. He would be the first person in the United States to be executed for a conviction related to “shaken baby syndrome,” a diagnosis that has been questioned by some medical experts.

A new execution date for Roberson has not been set, but he is certain to go ahead unless Republican Gov. Greg Abbott grants a 30-day reprieve. Abbott did not do so before Roberson’s original execution date, and his office challenged the subpoena tactics used by lawmakers, accusing them of overstepping their authority.

The state’s Republican High Court agreed, ruling that “under these circumstances, the committee’s authority to compel testimony does not include the power to overturn the scheduled legal process leading to an execution,” Republican Judge Evan Young wrote in issuing the court’s opinion. .

The ruling addressed a subpoena issued to Roberson by the Texas Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence. Roberson was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Oct. 17 when lawmakers, in a last-ditch effort, subpoenaed him to testify at the Texas Capitol, days after his scheduled execution.

This caused a legal quandary between the state’s criminal and civil courts, ultimately leading to a temporary ruling by the Texas Supreme Court in Roberson’s favor while it reviewed the matter.

Roberson has won bipartisan support from lawmakers and medical experts who say he was convicted on flawed evidence of “shaken baby syndrome,” which refers to a serious brain injury caused when a child’s head is injured from shaking or another violent impact, such as being hit. on a wall or thrown on the floor.

Rep. Joe Moody, who led the effort to stop Roberson’s execution, said delaying the execution with the subpoena was “never our specific intent” and added that the court “rightly agreed” that the subpoena and lawsuit were valid .

Moody insisted that Roberson could be called to testify because the court’s ruling “reinforced our belief that the Committee can indeed obtain Mr. Roberson’s testimony and made it clear that the executive branch of government expects us to accept that.” .

Prosecutors said Roberson killed his daughter by violently shaking her back and forth. Roberson’s attorneys argued that the child’s symptoms did not line up with child abuse and that she likely died of complications from severe pneumonia.

His case has drawn the support of nearly 90 lawmakers across party lines and civil rights advocates, who say Roberson is innocent and was not given a fair trial under the state’s “junk science law.” The statute allows people convicted of a crime under outdated science to have their sentence vacated. The 2013 law was hailed as progressive and the first of its kind, but civil rights advocates say the state’s highest criminal court is not using the law as it should for people facing execution.

The Supreme Court, which handles civil matters, said it would not rule on the merits of whether Roberson was guilty or not guilty of capital murder or based on the evidence in the case. Those questions belong to the criminal courts, which have so far rejected Roberson’s appeals, the Supreme Court said.

Roberson can still testify to serve the subpoena, but when that happens is up to the attorney general’s office, which has canceled previous efforts, according to one of his attorneys, Gretchen Sween.

“It remains to be seen whether the attorney general’s office will change its strategy and cooperate,” she said.

The parole board voted not to recommend clemency for Roberson before his scheduled execution date, and the governor’s office said lawmakers were out of line when they issued the subpoena.