U.S. Supreme Court halts Missouri execution

The U.S. Supreme Court has stayed the scheduled execution of a Missouri man who was convicted of killing a woman and her two children in 1998.

The high court late Tuesday sided with Mark Christeson who claimed that his previous attorneys were inadequate.

Among other things, those attorneys missed a 2005 deadline for a federal court appeal of Christeson’s conviction and death sentence.

He had been scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman Mike O'Donnell says the execution will not take place Wednesday and that no new date has been set.

Messages seeking comment from Christeson’s lawyers were not returned late Tuesday.

Christeson would have been the ninth person executed by Missouri this year.

This story was originally published October 28, 2014 at 10:41 PM with the headline "U.S. Supreme Court halts Missouri execution."