WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Convicted Nevada killer Robert McConnell won't be executed Feb. 1 as scheduled, officials said.
Howard Skolnik, director of the state Department of Corrections, confirmed a stay of execution was signed Friday so McConnell could pursue an appeal, the Las Vegas Sun reported Monday.
McConnell already had been transferred from the maximum-security prison in Ely to the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, location of the death chamber, officials said.
McConnell, 37, pleaded guilty to the 2002 killing of Brian Pierce, 25. He said he shot Pierce 10 times and stabbed him three times, then left a message on the victim's mother's answering machine, saying, "Your son died like a coward."
He initially was to have been executed in June 2005, the newspaper said, but less than an hour before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection he sought a reprieve.
