HUNTSVILLE, Texas - The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution
Wednesday of a condemned inmate who was part of a lawsuit that
challenged one of the drugs used to carry out the death sentence.

Kevin Lee Zimmerman won his reprieve about 20 minutes before he could
have been put to death for a fatal stabbing and robbery at a Beaumont
motel in 1987.

In a brief order, Justice Antonin Scalia stopped the punishment
pending an additional order from him or the court.

"I'm disappointed," Zimmerman told a Texas Department of Criminal
Justice spokeswoman, Michelle Lyons. "I was ready to go. The stay
only means 18 more months of this crap."

The lawsuit had allowed another inmate, Billy Frank Vickers, to avoid
the death chamber Tuesday. Rejection of the lawsuit Wednesday by the
5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for Zimmerman's
execution until the Supreme Court order was issued.

Citing the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual
punishment, the lawsuit sought to stop use of pancuronium bromide - a
drug that paralyzes muscles.

Texas, the first state to execute condemned inmates by injection,
uses a combination of three drugs: pancuronium bromide, the
barbiturate sodium thiopental and potassium chloride, which causes
cardiac arrest.

Vickers' execution was postponed when the 5th Circuit failed to rule
by midnight, and the death warrant expired. After the appeals court
rejected the case Wednesday, it was appealed to the U.S. Supreme
Court.

The lawsuit was patterned after a Tennessee death row inmate's suit,
now on appeal, that cites an American Veterinary Medical Association
condemnation of the drug.

Zimmerman's execution was the last scheduled for this year, when 24
inmates were executed. The total is the highest in the nation and
about average for the most active death penalty state.

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