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 1998 murder of an elderly mobile home park owner and is seeking DNA testing of evidence from the crime scene.

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.