By DPA,
Washington: A triple murderer minutes away from being executed by lethal injection in Texas has been given a temporary stay of execution after a US Supreme Court order.
Hank Skinner was eating his final meal before being due to be executed for the 1993 murder of his girlfriend and their two sons, when the legal order from Washington arrived late Wednesday.
Skinner, 47, has always maintained his innocence of the killings, claiming that he was too intoxicated to commit the murders, and that further DNA tests on knives and bloodstained clothes at the crime scene should be conducted.
However, the court order is only a temporary stay of execution whilst another court decides whether he has a strong enough case to appeal.
A fresh execution date could still be scheduled if that fails.
The case has aroused public sympathy from anti-death penalty advocates in the US, as well as a planned protest in France – the nationality of the murdered wife.
Skinner believes an uncle of his wife – now dead – may have committed the murders.