With his execution looming last Thursday, the 57-year-old Texas death row inmate watched as his attorneys’ legal arguments were rejected in the courts and his pleas for clemency disregarded, as the state parole board declined to recommend he receive a lesser sentence or reprieve.

Gov. Greg Abbott urged the Texas Supreme Court to toss out a subpoena ordering death row inmate Robert Roberson to testify in front of a Texas House committee, saying lawmakers “stepped out of line.” The three-page letter sent Sunday by James Sullivan,