US:Minutes before Earl Wesley Berry was due to die at Mississippi state penitentiary on Tuesday, the US Supreme Court postponed his execution, signalling a de facto moratorium on the death penalty in the US until the court rules on the constitutionality of the lethal injection used in most states.
Berry (48), who has been on death row since 1988 for kidnapping and beating a woman to death, had already eaten what he thought was his last meal and had showered in preparation for his execution.
Mississippi corrections commissioner Chris Epps said Berry "cried quite a bit" in the hours before his scheduled execution.
After the court announced its decision, "we told him immediately thereafter and he just busted into tears," Mr Epps said.
Berry's is the third stay of execution the court has granted since it agreed in September to hear a challenge to the three-chemical cocktail used for the lethal injection in Kentucky, which is similar to that used in other states.
The issue in that case is how judges should evaluate claims that the combination of drugs used to bring about death causes suffering that amounts to "cruel and unusual punishment", which the US constitution forbids. The court is expected to hear arguments in the Kentucky case in January, with a decision likely by the end of June 2008.
The American Bar Association this week said that serious problems in the death penalty systems in many states meant that fairness and accuracy were compromised and called for a halt to executions. A three-year study of the systems in eight states found that poor collection and preservation of DNA evidence, false confessions and serious racial disparities in the administration of justice were widespread. A total of 42 people have been executed in the US since the beginning of this year.