In Texas, the nation's leader in executions, courts have upheld death sentences in cases where defense lawyers slept during big portions of the trial.
A month after his execution, the court agreed to hear that question in another case.
Three Supreme Court justices — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — would have stopped the execution, the court indicated in its brief ruling.
Because a majority is needed for a stay of execution, the court's 3-to-3 decision was a defeat for the death row inmate, Napoleon Beazley.
About 2 p.m., just four hours before the scheduled execution, the court voted 8 to 1 to grant a reprieve "until further order" to Willie Jerome Manning, 44, who was convicted in 1994 of murdering two college students.
In another development today bearing on the death penalty, three justices filed an opinion dissenting from stays of execution the court granted last month to two Texas death row inmates.
"By means of the police force, the judiciary was subjected to open pressure, and the execution of court orders was obstructed," Akkas said.
"If they try and aim at Tayyip Erdogan through this, they will [be left empty-handed]." Akkas issued a statement accusing the government of obstructing the execution of court orders, saying police loyal to Erdogan have refused to comply.
"We certainly welcome the repeated assurance from the Indonesian authorities during this year that there would be no executions while court cases are under way," he said.
During his controversial tenure in command in Missouri, Gen. John C. Frémont ordered the execution, after court-martial, of persons in arms against the United States.
