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 man on death row in Texas who had expected to be executed on Thursday night is now set to testify next week before the state lawmakers who believe he may have been wrongly convicted of murdering his 2-year-old daughter and secured him an extraordinary reprieve.