Huntsville - Texas' top criminal court has stopped the scheduled execution of a Nicaraguan man convicted of killing a Houston high school teacher during a robbery more than 18 years ago.
Condemned 39-year-old inmate Bernardo Tercero was set for lethal injection on Wednesday evening.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a reprieve on Tuesday after attorneys contended in an appeal that a prosecution witness at Tercero's trial in 2000 gave false testimony.
The appeals court has returned the case to the trial court to review the claim.
Tercero was convicted of fatally shooting 38-year-old Robert Berger, who was in a Houston dry cleaners shop in March 1997 when Tercero came in to rob it.
Prosecutors said Tercero was in the US illegally at the time of the slaying.