This story has been updated.

Ronald B. Smith, a death row inmate in Alabama, was spared lethal injection Thursday for a few hours before he was put to death.

Smith was sentenced to death for fatally shooting a store clerk during a 1994 robbery. A jury recommended life in prison, but a judge overrode the recommendation and ordered the death penalty.

Smith appealed his sentence on a number of legal grounds, including the judicial override. He also challenged the constitutionality of Alabama's lethal injection protocol, which he lost due to the statute of limitations.

The Supreme Court issued a temporary stay "pending further order of the court," but then deadlocked on whether to take the case. Smith was executed a few hours after his originally scheduled time.

Read more about Smith's case and the legal arguments around the death penalty.