Richard Cooey, 36, received a stay just 12 hours before being put to death by lethal injection.

U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster granted the request of the Ohio Public Defender for more time to study the case.

Attorneys Margery Koosed and Nathan Ray raised claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in the federal courts, but The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit was dissatisfied with Koosed and Ray’s legal assistance. At the last minute, the Ohio Public Defender was assigned by a Judge Polster, to file any remaining federal appeals available to Cooey.

Polster said that based on the 6th Circuit's letters to Koosed and Ray, not only was Cooey possibly deprived of competent counsel, he also was without any federal representation for at least five weeks before his execution date.

"Reasoned and thoughtful people may debate the significance of the life of Richard Cooey. ... It is our responsibility as federal judges to ensure the integrity of our own process, and that is why I have stayed Cooey's execution," Polster said.

Earlier Wednesday, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 6-0 to uphold the 9th Ohio District Court of Appeals' decision that Cooey could not reopen his claim of ineffective assistance from the lawyers who handled his original 1987 appeal.

Cooey also has an appeal pending in the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a review of his case based on an allegation that prosecutors reneged on a deal to offer Cooey a plea bargain at his original trial. On Tuesday, Judge Jane Bond of Summit County Common Pleas Court rejected Cooey's request for a hearing on the same issue. The nation's highest court had not ruled by late Wednesday.

Gov. Bob Taft on Tuesday denied Cooey's request for clemency. A unanimous state parole board said earlier this month that Mr. Taft should not grant clemency to Cooey.

Cooey was convicted in the deaths of two University of Akron students in September 1986. His co-defendant, Clint Dickens was 17 at the time of the crime and could not be sentenced to death. He is serving a life sentence.