Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson sat praying in a cell Thursday night just feet from the execution chamber where he was set to be put to death for the murder of his toddler – even as the state and his attorneys exchanged frantic 11th-hour legal maneuvers to determine his fate before the clock ran out.

A district court will not throw out the execution warrant for Robert Roberson III, a Palestine man on death row accused of killing his daughter. Roberson was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki in 2002 and sentenced to death.

An East Texas judge has declined to vacate the execution warrant for a Palestine man on death row since 2003. Robert Roberson, 59, of Palestine, who was sentenced in 2003 for the 2002 death of his daughter,