[UPDATED 3:35p.m., removes mention of Davis's arrest, incorporates 2 bylines]
Don Davis’ execution — scheduled for 9 tonight — has been delayed again.
The state Department of Correction said justices intervened because of a question about whether the Legislature properly left execution policies in the hands of prison officials.
Dina Tyler, department spokeswoman, said there would be no execution tonight.
Davis, 47, was convicted of 1990’s execution-style murder of Jane Daniel at her Rogers home. His appeals have been ongoing since except for a few months in 2001 when he waived his right of appeal.
Representatives of the state’s Attorney General’s office will hold a press briefing at 3:30 today to discuss the case, said spokesman Aaron Sadler.
Davis has been on death row since his conviction in 1992.
Daniel’s husband arrived home from a business trip the night of the killing. He found his wife lying dead in a nearby pantry.
Earlier, Department of Correction spokeswoman Dina Tyler said prison officials were preparing as though the 9 p.m. execution would go forward.
However, the Friday ruling by a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that lifted Davis’ stay was on a 2-1 vote. The dissenting judge argued that the stay should endure because of Davis’ challenge to a state policy allowing changes in the execution protocol.
“The stay should remain in effect until that issue can be resolved,” wrote Judge Michael J. Melloy.
Arkansas last executed a prisoner in November 2005, when convicted killer Eric Nance died by lethal injection.
Excluding Davis, there are 39 people on Arkansas’ death row.
Davis had been set for execution on Nov. 8, but won a stay because of a court challenge in Kentucky that claimed the lethal injection procedure was cruel and unusual. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the inmates.