The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear an appeal by a Texas man who faces the death penalty for his role in the murder of an elderly mobile home park owner and is seeking DNA testing of evidence from the crime scene.

Texas elections law says state prison inmates who are appealing their convictions are eligible to register. Many lawyers and voting rights advocates were unaware of the rule.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of a Texas man on death row who has long argued that DNA testing would help prove he didn't kill an 85-year-old woman during a home robbery decades ago.

Robert Roberson is scheduled to be put to death Oct. 17. His case — based on a syndrome with scientific uncertainty — has led the original detective to call for his release.

A man in Texas is scheduled to be put to death later this month, in what would be the country's first execution for "shaken baby syndrome". The controversial diagnosis has been successfully challenged in some previous criminal cases.