Texas Defender

Texas Defender
Hope is Action

Hope is Action

Dear Friends, Election night 2024 brought incredible change to this country. Many feel overwhelmed or find it difficult to hold on to hope.  The work of fighting for justice day in and out is hard and it takes years—even lifetimes. But we are in it for the long haul. For us, hope is action: facing the most […]

Robert Roberson’s Life Has Been Saved by Texas Legislators

Robert Roberson’s Life Has Been Saved by Texas Legislators

Dear Friends, What played out last night was the most extraordinary legal fight we have ever witnessed in our careers. The execution of an innocent, autistic man, Robert Roberson, was halted at the 11th hour after a group of bipartisan Texas legislators won a temporary restraining order. Their restraining order was vacated by the Texas Court of […]

Please Call Governor Abbott & Tell Him to Save Robert Roberson

Please Call Governor Abbott & Tell Him to Save Robert Roberson

Dear Friends, We need your help. Texas courts have denied Robert Roberson’s pleas for his life despite scientifically-backed evidence of his innocence. Today, as a bipartisan group of legislators held an emergency meeting to discuss Robert’s case, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Robert’s plea for clemency. Robert’s life is now in Governor Greg Abbott’s hands. Unless […]

Standing Against Injustice

Standing Against Injustice

Dear Friends, This week has exposed how race and injustice continue to play a central role in our country’s administration of the death penalty. Just days ago, Khaliifah Ibn Rayford Daniels (also known as Marcellus Williams), a Black man convicted of killing a white woman, was executed in Missouri despite a strong claim of innocence and over […]

John Grisham Asks if Texas Will Execute An Innocent Man

John Grisham Asks if Texas Will Execute An Innocent Man

Dear Friends, Please read this powerful piece by author John Grisham about Robert Roberson, an innocent father with autism who has spent over 20 years on death row in Texas for a crime that never occurred. Mr. Roberson was committed to being a present father to his chronically ill two-year-old daughter Nikki. Tragically, Nikki passed away, and her father […]