LUCASVILLE — Ten minutes away from his second scheduled execution, it appeared nothing would save condemned killer Jay D. Scott.

        The Lucasville prison execution team was preparing to move Mr. Scott into the death chamber where lethal chemicals would be injected into his body. The governor had denied clemency.

        His “last” appeal had been rejected by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of appeals.

        Then, at 8:50 p.m., a stay issued by that same court stunned officials, who officially called off the execution. A one-page notice from the court said the stay was needed to give the full 12-judge panel time to poll itself and determine if a majority supported reopening the case.

Scott

        While state officials awaited the poll results, the cancellation means more days, or perhaps weeks, of life for Mr. Scott. With his death warrant expiring at midnight, the Ohio Supreme Court must now order a new execution date.

        Tuesday's events marked Ohio's fifth last-minute failure to execute a death row inmate against his will in the past 10 years.

        The state originally planned to execute Mr. Scott on April 17, but the Ohio Supreme Court stayed the execution less than an hour before it was take place to consider his insanity appeal.

        In addition to Mr. Scott, the U.S. Supreme Court also halted planned executions of death row inmates Robert Buell in 1996, John Byrd Jr. in 1994 and Wilford Berry in 1998. Mr. Berry, who waived his appeals and volunteered for execution, died by lethal injection in 1999.

        With only one execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1981, Ohio still ranks last among the 38 states that allow death sentences. Ohio is tied with Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho and Tennessee at one execution apiece.

        The latest delay spurred an angry retort from Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery, who said it undermines the public's faith in the justice system.

        Earlier in the day, Mr. Scott ate his supposed last meal — fried fish with hot sauce and a Pepsi — while his son, five other family members and an Islamic spiritual adviser took turns chatting with him through the bars of his death house cell at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

        Members of a 12-person execution team were constantly by Mr. Scott's side Tuesday and said he occasionally smoked cigarettes and generally was calm in the hours leading up to the execution.

        The late-breaking news puts yet another twist to a month of intense legal debate and court hearings focused on Mr. Scott's sanity and the appropriateness of the death penalty. Mr. Scott's lawyers argued, society had evolved to a point at which killing the mentally ill would be cruel and unusual punishment.

        Though he won unprecedented hearings at every level of the state court system, no Ohio judge or justice would agree.

        Mr. Scott had indicated he'd offer no final statement. His family members also had said they would leave the prison without commenting.

        Mr. Scott's son Antwine Taylor, 29, emerged from the prison shortly after 5 p.m. to show reporters a Polaroid photo of himself and his father taken Tuesday.

        He reportedly said his father's spirits were good considering what he was facing. He also said he and his father were confident they would win a second stay from the appellate court.

        Five other family members who visited him throughout the day left without comment. Brothers George Scott, Charles Scott and stepbrother Alexander Parra had been waiting outside the death chamber to witness the execution.

        Mr. Scott reportedly discussed old family memories, events and photos, at first in a private room and later through the bars of his cell.

        State and county prosecutors were unable to find any relatives of his two victims, delicatessen owner Vinnie M. Prince, 75, and Cleveland private guard Alexander Ralph Jones.

        Mr. Scott originally got a second death penalty for Mr. Jones' death. A federal court overturned it after the judge decided jurors were improperly swayed by newspaper accounts of Mr. Scott's first trial.

        Though it was to be the first time Ohio executed someone against his will, the event drew few protesters. There was a group of about 25 people gathered outside the prison.

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