Anti-death penalty activists protest in Texas against capital punishment

Anti-death penalty advocates held a rally over the weekend in Texas calling for capital punishment to be abolished, as several high-profile death row cases in Texas and other states have sparked debate over whether the death penalty should remain.

Former death row inmates spoke at the 25th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty on Saturday, according to Fox 26. The march held each fall features state abolitionists, former death row inmates and allies opposing capital punishment who all gather together to demand an end to the state-sanctioned death of inmates on death row.

Many of the advocates said they are fighting for innocent people like Robert Roberson, who is currently on death row over his conviction in which prosecutors say he killed his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, by shaking her to death, known as shaken baby syndrome. But his lawyers say Nikki actually died from other health issues such as pneumonia and that new evidence proves his innocence. His lawyers also said doctors had failed to rule out these other medical explanations for the child's symptoms.

Roberson was scheduled to be put to death on Thursday before the state Supreme Court issued a stay to delay his execution shortly before it was set to take place. He would have been the first person in the U.S. to be executed based on shaken baby syndrome.

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A sign placed by death penalty opponents sits in front of the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009. (AP)

The delay was issued Thursday night after a bipartisan group of state lawmakers subpoenaed Roberson to testify Monday about his case. The ruling came after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals earlier Thursday night denied a motion for a stay of execution, reversing a judge's temporary injunction that was handed down earlier that day.

More than 80 Texas state lawmakers, as well as the detective who helped the prosecution, medical experts, parental rights groups, human rights groups, bestselling novelist John Grisham and other advocates have called for the state to grant Roberson clemency over the belief that he is innocent. A group of state lawmakers also visited Roberson in prison to encourage him.

At the rally in Texas, former death row inmate Pamala Tise said she was locked up for a total of 40 years.

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Texas lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson at a prison in Livingston, Texas, Sept. 27, 2024.  (Criminal Justice Reform Caucus via AP)

Tise was sentenced to death at the age of 24 following her conviction on two counts of capital murder, Fox 26 reported. Her initial conviction was overturned in 1983, but she was again sentenced to death after a retrial. The following year, she was placed back on death row and remained there until 2000.

"I was not innocent of my crime. When I did my crime, I was on a lot of drugs and when I came off the drugs a week later and realized what we had done, I turned myself into the police," Tise said, according to Fox 26.

But in 2000, her conviction was overturned because of a conflict of interests. She was taken off death row following a plea bargain that reduced her capital murder charges to two counts of aggravated robbery.

Photo shows the gurney in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

"So I went in at 24 and came out at 64," said Tise, who now campaigns against the death penalty.

"Having someone be executed, to me, would be the easy way out. Spending the rest of your life in prison is a living hell," Tise added.

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Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement organizer Gloria Rubac said "Harris County has more people on death row than any state."

The activists said they hope a court will hear the new evidence in Roberson's case when he testifies on Monday.