LIVE: Robert Roberson execution date hearing

A district judge will hear arguments surrounding a new execution date for Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson.

According to Roberson's attorneys, Judge Austin Reeve Jackson set a hearing for 10 a.m. Wednesday to set a new execution date.

The move comes after the State of Texas requested a new execution date.

Roberson's attorneys are seeking a new trial and say setting a new execution date is premature while a petition is out to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Roberson's attorneys asked for the hearing last month before a new execution warrant was issued.

"With a habeas petition pending in the CCA and a mountain of evidence proving Robert Roberson’s innocence that has yet to be considered, the request for an execution date in this case makes little legal or moral sense," Roberson's attorney Gretchen Sween said. "We look forward to presenting our arguments to the court opposing the request, made by the AG’s Office, which only recently and inexplicably acted to take over representing the State in this matter which has been handled by the elected District Attorney of Anderson County since 2016."

Roberson was convicted of capital murder after his 2-year-old daughter was said to have died of shaken baby syndrome in 2002.

Lawyers for the death row inmate now say the determination was based on "junk science" and that his daughter, Nikki, likely died of natural causes.

Roberson was scheduled to be executed on Oct. 17, 2024, but the execution was put on hold after a last-minute request from lawmakers.