Fearing Texas was preparing to execute a potentially innocent man, state lawmakers tried an admittedly desperate long shot when they issued a subpoena ordering death row inmate Robert Roberson III to appear before a House committee four days after his scheduled lethal injection.

A judge granted a request to delay the execution of a man scheduled to become the first person in the U.S. put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

The development comes after several Republican and Democratic state lawmakers issued a subpoena for Roberson to testify at a hearing next week about his case