A last-minute decision by the United States Supreme Court late yesterday spared the life of a Jamaican man who was scheduled to be executed in the state of Florida.

Paul Howell was slated to die by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison at 6 o'clock last evening for the killing of Highway Patrol Trooper Jimmy Fulford in 1992.

In a decision that came hours before the scheduled execution, the Supreme Court denied an emergency motion filed by prosecutors seeking to vacate the temporary stay of execution granted by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal a day earlier.

"Which means that the stay of execution is in effect and Mr Howell will not die tonight," one of his attorneys Ida Ufferman told The Gleaner hours after the ruling.

Ufferman said the Eleventh Circuit Court will now schedule a briefing hearing that will allow them to present mitigating evidence that was not considered during Howell's sentencing hearings.