Supreme Court stays Texas execution

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday issued a last-minute stay of execution for Texas deathrow inmate Carlton Turner Jr.

Turner, who had been scheduled for execution Thursday night for a double slaying, filed the appeal after the Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to consider the constitutionality of lethal injection.

The decision suggests the court may be receptive to requests to delay lethal injection executions until the issue is argued next year, The New York Times reported.

It is the first constitutional challenge to a method of execution since the Supreme Court upheld the use of firing squads more than 100 years ago, the Houston Chronicle said Thursday.