A Texas appeals court on Tuesday halted the execution of a man who has spent more than 30 years on death row and had been set to die by lethal injection this week over the killings of six girls and young women found buried in the desert near El Paso.

The man poised to become the first Louisiana death row inmate executed in 15 years scored a significant win Tuesday as he challenges the state's plan to use nitrogen hypoxia to carry out his death sentence.