In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between the justice system and autistic people.
An autistic man is on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Texas Governor Greg Abbott would not grant a reprieve. Now he objects to a delay in his execution.Berenice Garcia at The Texas Tribune:
Gov. Greg Abbott's office condemned the actions of a bipartisan group of Texas legislators Monday, effectively breaking his silence in the pending execution of Robert Roberson.
In an amicus brief filed by James P. Sullivan, the governor's general counsel, the governor's office said lawmakers “stepped out of line” when they intervened to save Roberson’s life.
The brief argued the power to grant clemency in a capital case, including a 30-day reprieve, lies with the governor alone.
"Unless the Court rejects that tactic, it can be repeated in every capital case, effectively rewriting the Constitution to reassign a power given only to the Governor," Sullivan argued.
Bayliss Wagner and John C. Moritz, Austin American-Statesman:
After a dramatic flurry of weekend court filings, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Monday opted to delay hearing testimony from death row inmate Robert Roberson, scuttling a controversial plan that drew national attention and avoiding what might have been a developing constitutional crisis in state government.
But the committee did hear from one member of the jury that convicted Roberson, who told the panel that if she had known of new evidence that calls into question the foundational premise of the trial — that the condemned man had killed his daughter by shaking her to death — she would have voted to set him free at trial.
