less than seven hours before he was scheduled to be executed...

less than seven hours before he was scheduled to be executed, Tommy Arthur was granted a 45-day stay Thursday by Gov. Bob Riley.
Riley said he issued the stay of Arthur's execution so the inmate could be put to death using a new lethal injection formula the governor had ordered just a day before, to allow time for the new lethal-injection procedures to be put in place. The changes are designed to make sure the inmate is unconscious when given drugs to stop the heart and lungs. The governor encouraged the attorney general's office to ask the Alabama Supreme Court to set another execution date "as soon as possible." Arthur, 65, white, was sentenced to death on Feb. 19, 1983 for the Feb. 1, 1982, killing of Troy Wicker, 35. Arthur's case has been tried three times because of appeals. In all three cases, he was found guilty.
Riley's decision comes one day after the Alabama Supreme Court declined to issue a stay in Arthur's case. Arthur had requested the stay, on the heels of a Kentucky case. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed a Tuesday execution of a Kentucky inmate because of questions about lethal injection.
The victim's wife, Judy Wicker, testified she paid him $10,000 to kill her husband. The wife of Arthur's victim was given a life sentence for her part in the murder and paroled after 10 years behind bars.