State lawmakers subpoenaed his testimony in an attempt to delay his execution. The Texas attorney general has filed an appeal of the judge’s decision.

A Texas judge has blocked the execution of the first man to be put on death row in the US for murder charges related to "shaken baby syndrome", less than two hours before the execution was due to be carried out.

The Texas Supreme Court has halted the scheduled execution of a man who would have become the first person in the US put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

A man in Texas is due on Thursday to become the first executed in the United States for murder attributed to shaken baby syndrome, despite his lawyers and many Texas lawmakers saying the conviction was based on faulty evidence.

Robert Roberson to be executed today, despite critics' doubts over the potentially flawed 'shaken baby syndrome' diagnosis.

The American Academy of Pediatrics embraces the diagnosis, but courts have thrown out some cases, calling it “junk science.”

In a last-ditch effort to halt Robert Roberson's execution, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee issued a subpoena for him to testify before them on Oct. 21.

Barring a last-minute intervention, Robert Roberson was set to be executed on Thursday evening for the death of his 2-year-old child.