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Texas state representatives on Friday slammed Attorney General Ken Paxton's last-minute effort to block testimony from a man on death row after his 2-year-old daughter died from what was diagnosed as shaken baby syndrome.

Committee Chair Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, said Paxton's late-Thursday filed in Polk County court seeking to excuse the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from helping Robert Leslie Roberson III testify before the Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence is "filled with dishonest and factually disprovable claims" about the process the committee engaged in to hear Roberson's testimony about his conviction.

"Here's what the attorney general's office said: The committee has refused to meaningfully engage with [the Texas Department of Criminal Justice] in good faith discussion to explore any potential compromise. This is the dishonesty that I'm referring to," Moody said during a committee hearing held Friday.

The committee has, instead, made every effort to work with the TDCJ and the Texas Office of the Attorney General to hear Roberson's testimony since it first subpoenaed Roberson in October, even offering to go to the prison where Roberson is incarcerated to speak with him in person, Moody said.

The TDCJ never meaningfully responded to anything because they don't want the public and the Texas Legislature to hear from Roberson, Moody said.

Roberson was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002 and sentenced to death the following year after doctors and a medical examiner found she had internal injuries caused by what is known as shaken baby syndrome, which is caused by violently shaking a child.

The case has garnered national attention as Roberson has pushed to toss his conviction on the grounds that the medical experts' conclusions have since been discredited. The state's Junk Science Law gives defendants a pathway to challenge their convictions based on debunked scientific research, and Roberson has argued that new science surrounding head trauma and new evidence from his daughter's autopsy report warrants another examination of his case.

Committee member Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, said everyone should be "shocked and alarmed and very concerned" by what he identified as Paxton's attempt to step on the committee's toes by claiming it can't communicate with the TDCJ in order to enforce the subpoena, thereby making it impossible for Roberson to comply.

Addressing his fellow representatives, he accused Paxton of "knowingly and intentionally" delaying resolution of the motion until it will be rendered moot by the new legislative session set to convene on Jan. 14 by claiming to be out of the country until Jan. 13 and asking the court not to take up the matter until Jan. 13 at the earliest.

"We all see this for what it is," Leach said.

Before the hearing was adjourned, Leach said in his closing remarks that Paxton should appear before the committee ahead of Jan. 14 to answer whether Leach and his fellow lawmakers could meet with Roberson in person at the prison where he is being held.

Although the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Roberson's execution could proceed on Oct. 17, the committee issued a subpoena to Roberson on Oct. 16 requiring him to appear at the Texas Capitol and testify before the Texas House of Representatives Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, which had the effect of stalling Roberson's execution.

The Texas Supreme Court in November that Moody and his fellow lawmakers couldn't use the committee's subpoena power to halt Roberson's execution. But adamant to hear Roberson's testimony, the committee issued a second subpoena to Roberson on Dec. 10, ordering him to appear before the committee on Dec. 20 at 2 p.m.

Despite Roberson's absence Friday, the committee continued with its plan to hear testimony from Josh Burns, a man who was convicted of second-degree child abuse in 2015 in Michigan after a pediatrician determined his 2-month-old daughter was the victim of shaken baby syndrome. Burns has since had his conviction vacated and lives in Texas with his wife and daughter.

In his testimony, Burns told the committee that he was there to speak for Roberson, whose life he said "hangs in the balance over junk science and the shaken baby hypothesis." Aside from their shared experience of being accused of harming their children, Burns also said he felt compelled to speak on behalf of Roberson, who has a developmental disability, because of his own daughter's autism diagnosis.

"Learning about this developmental disability through her allows me to see how easy it would be to misjudge someone like Robert, whose way of showing and interpreting emotions is not neurotypical," Burns said.

--Additional reporting by Catherine Marfin. Editing by Dave Trumbore.