Alabama death row inmate Tommy Arthur, to whom one victim advocate already referred as "Houdini" for escaping execution six times, on Thursday had his execution postponed for the seventh time in 15 years.

The execution was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court officially at 10:55 p.m., a prison spokesman said. "There will be no execution tonight," said Alabama prison spokesman Bob Horton.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office had notified the prison system of the stay, Horton said.

The stay will remain in place until the court decides whether it will agree to review Arthur's appeal, according to the SCOTUS order. If they don't, then the stay automatically is removed and Alabama would be free to set another execution date. Two justices, Thomas and Alito, stated they would not have granted the stay.

Four of the justices were in favor and the Chief Justice stated he didn't favor a stay or review but agreed out of courtesy.

"We are greatly relieved by the Supreme Court's decision granting a stay and now hope for the opportunity to present the merits of Mr. Arthur's claims to the Court," according to a statement from Arthur's attorney Suhana Han.

Attorney General Luther Strange criticized the decision to halt the execution.

"With all due respect to the Supreme Court, tonight's order undermines the rule of law. While I agree with Chief Justice Roberts that 'this case does not merit the Court's review,' in my view, there is no 'courtesy' in voting to deny justice to the victims of a notorious and cold-blooded killer," Strange said.

SCOTUS had twice delayed the execution Thursday night.

An order shortly before 9:30 p.m. Thursday signed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had been a temporary order staying the execution, Horton said. At that time prison officials were still waiting to see if the court ruled again and they could go forward with the execution before midnight.

If the court had ruled before midnight and denied the stay then it would have possible the execution could go forward, Horton said.

"We're in a holding pattern ... We're going to continue to wait for the Supreme Court," Horton said at that time.

Earlier Thursday evening, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn agreed to a two-hour delay of the scheduled 6 p.m. execution so the Supreme Court could review the split 11th Circuit decision, said Horton.

In that 2-1 decision, 11th Circuit decision Circuit Judge Charles Wilson said the execution should have been stayed in order for Arthur's appeals on his lethal injection challenge.

"Due to the scarcity of and secrecy surrounding lethal injection drugs, it is all but impossible for a prisoner to set forth a viable lethal-injection-based alternative," Wilson wrote in his dissent in Wednesday's opinion. "The Majority's decision therefore checkmates countless Alabama and Florida prisoners, nullifying their constitutional right to a humane execution."

Wilson also stated that the majority in the ruling - Hull and Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus - determines that Arthur's suggestion of a firing squad was not feasible and readily implemented because Alabama law does not authorize the firing squad.

"Arthur should be permitted to amend his complaint to include the firing squad as an execution alternative to Alabama's lethal injection protocol. The firing squad is a potentially viable alternative, and Arthur may be entitled to relief under Baze and Glossip (U.S. Supreme Court ruling) based on that method of execution," Wilson wrote.

Arthur remained defiant Thursday as he waited to see if the U.S. Supreme Court would stay his execution at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

Arthur's attorneys Wednesday night filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a stay after the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to block the execution.

Arthur on Thursday told AL.com in a telephone interview he was hopeful this execution would be stayed.

"We've still got wiggle room," Arthur said this afternoon. "We're not done yet."

Asked if he accepted the reality he might not avoid today's execution, Arthur replied: "All I can do is sit here and hate it."

Arthur said he had no visitors Thursday although his lawyers had just arrived at the prison when he spoke to AL.com. Arthur said he planned to make a final statement if he was executed.

Arthur was convicted at three trials and sentenced to death each time for the 1982 murder-for-hire shooting death of Troy Wicker, of Muscle Shoals.

At the time of the Wicker murder, Arthur was serving at a Decatur work release center for a conviction in the 1977 murder of his sister-in-law in Marion County.

Arthur was hired by Wicker's wife, Judy, with whom he was having a romantic relationship. Judy Wicker testified at one trial that she paid Arthur $10,000 of the insurance money. Wicker was killed with one shot through the right eye as he slept.

Arthur maintains his innocence.

On Wednesday, both the Alabama Supreme Court and the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied requests by Arthur's attorneys to have the execution stayed. Each decision had one dissent.

Had Arthur been executed, it would have been the second execution in Alabama this year.

Christopher Brooks was executed Jan. 21 for the 1992 murder of Jo Deann Campbell at her Homewood apartment. Brooks' execution was the first in more than two years in Alabama as the state dealt with finding new lethal injection drugs after pharmaceutical companies began refusing to provide them for executions.

Brooks was executed using Alabama new three-drug combination, which has been challenged in federal court by Arthur and other inmates as violating constitutional bans against cruel and unusual punishment.

When it denied Arthur's stay the U.S. 11th also affirmed U.S. District Court Judge Keith Watkins' ruling that dismissed Arthur's lawsuit challenging the lethal injection drug combination and the consciousness test procedure during the execution. Arthur had claimed that the correctional officers conducting the execution did not - or did not do it properly - perform the "pinch test" on the condemned inmate's left arm to make sure he was sedated before the second two drugs were administered.

Watkins this week also tossed out similar claims filed by a group of other death row inmates.

SCOTUS Petition by KentFaulk on Scribd

Arthur's petition to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a stay centers on the constitutionality of Alabama's death penalty sentencing scheme.

The petition states that SCOTUS should grant the stay and decide whether Alabama's death sentencing scheme is unconstitutional in light of the SCOTUS ruling in January in the case Hurst v. Florida. In that ruling the court found Florida's death sentencing law unconstitutional. Alabama's law is similar to Florida's law, Arthur's attorneys argue.

"This court's decision in Hurst invalidates Alabama's death sentencing scheme," according to Arthur's petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. "The Alabama Supreme Court refused to recognize the validity of Hurst, both as it applies generally to Alabama and specifically to Mr. Arthur. This court should stay Mr. Arthur's scheduled execution and resolve the important constitutional issues raised by Mr. Arthur's petition for certiorari (review)."

District attorneys and Attorney General Strange have said Alabama's law is not the same as Florida's former law. They have said the U.S. Supreme Court held in the Florida case that a jury, not the judge, must find the aggravating factor in order to make someone eligible for the death penalty. Alabama's system, however, already required the jury to do just that in either the guilt or sentencing phase, they said.

Once a jury has unanimously made the factual determination that a defendant meets the criteria to be eligible for the death penalty, the judge may make the legal determination of whether to impose it or not, the attorney general has stated.

The U.S. Supreme Court in the spring sent three death sentence cases back to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to review in light of its decision in Hurst v. Florida. While the state appeals court hasn't ruled on those three cases, it and the Alabama Supreme Court have both ruled the state's capital murder sentencing scheme constitutional in other cases since that time.

Vernon Madison, one of Alabama's longest-serving death row inmates, had his execution stayed by the 11th Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court the day of the execution in May.

Madison was convicted in the April 1985 slaying of Mobile police Cpl. Julius Schulte. Madison has claimed that he is mentally incompetent to be executed.

Alabama also has set another execution for Dec. 8 for another death row inmate, Ronald Bert Smith, who was convicted in Madison County in the November 1994 slaying of Circle C convenience store clerk Casey Wilson during a robbery.

Note: AL.com is participating in "The Next to Die" with The Marshall Project to track and provide information on scheduled executions