The Texas Supreme Court has halted a man's execution scheduled for Thursday evening.
He could have become the first person in the United States to be sentenced to death for the murder of his child in 2002.
The decision to spare the life of the convicted man was astonishing, writes The Washington Post .
The man was waiting on death row for a definitive decision on whether he would be given a lethal injection and was stunned by the cancellation.
He was convicted of murdering his daughter in East Texas.
However, lawyers and some medical experts argued that his baby died not from violence but from complications from pneumonia.
The Texas State Congress spoke out in support of the convicted man.
Judiciary committee members voted unanimously to have the defendant appear for a hearing next week.
The district court issued a temporary restraining order requiring life preservation an hour and a half before the execution.
