Death row inmate Robert Roberson III will not appear Friday at a Texas House hearing, the chair of the committee holding the hearing said. Roberson, 58, was set to testify before the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence after the committee’s chair issued a subpoena Tuesday.

The motion escalates a tense standoff between Paxton and a bipartisan Texas House committee, which had subpoenaed Roberson to testify at the Capitol on Friday.

Friday marked the second attempt to get Roberson to give testimony in Austin before the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.