a split panel of three judges from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis...

a split panel of three judges from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis granted the stay to Jack Harold Jones Jr. Jones appealed to the court last month, arguing his scheduled Oct. 16 execution should be delayed as the Supreme Court hears the case of two Kentucky inmates over lethal injection. (see also Sept. 25)
Jones, 43, acknowledged to the state Parole Board that he did "own" the 1991 rape and slaying of Mary Phillips and an attack on her 11-year-old daughter. His appeal cited the Kentucky case, which claims the mix of drugs in a lethal injection, used in Arkansas and 36 other states performing lethal injections, violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment in the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In July, the state Department of Correction changed its execution procedure, increasing the amount of anesthetic given to a condemned inmate from 2 grams to 3 grams.