After a post-mortem examination determined that his daughter Nikki Curtis, then two years old, died from abuse-related injuries, Robert Roberson, then 57, was given a death sentence in 2003.
Long-standing claims by Roberson, his lawyers, and friends have been that complications from pneumonia were the child’s cause of death.
However, the prosecution has maintained that fresh evidence does not refute their claim that the child’s father’s injuries caused her death.
Roberson was scheduled to be put to death on Thursday at 18:00 local time (23:00 GMT).
However, just ninety minutes prior, a Travis County judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent it from proceeding, allowing Roberson to testify in a state legislature session the next week.
After a Texas House subcommittee late on Wednesday issued a highly unusual subpoena for Roberson in the hopes that authorities would have to send him to appear at a hearing on October 21, the decision was made.
