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STARKE -- The U.S. Supreme Court stay that spared Clarence Hill's life Tuesday night is expected to continue to keep him alive, with no action today even if the stay, signed by Justice Anthony Kennedy, is lifted.

Hill was set to die for the 1982 shooting death of Pensacola police officer Stephen Taylor. Gov. Jeb Bush in November signed Hill's death warrant, setting the time for his execution at 6 p.m. Final appeals before circuit courts and the Florida Supreme Court and federal appeals courts failed.

But Hill's attorneys had three pending motions before the nation's highest court and Kennedy granted the stay based on a filing that argued lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. Kennedy rejected two other appeals.

Florida Assistant Attorney General Carolyn Snurkowski, who is handling the state's arguments in Hill's appeals, said the appeal that resulted in the stay was rejected Tuesday afternoon by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. An appeal was then filed with the Supreme Court at 4:45 p.m., just more than an hour before the scheduled execution. The state filed its responses at 5.

Hill's attorney, Todd Doss, was not available this morning.

Kennedy's stay didn't come until 7 p.m.

For an hour, witnesses that included Taylor's brother and sister, sat silently, staring forward at their own reflections in the glass panes that separate the witness room from the death chamber. A brown curtain stayed drawn, never opened to signal the execution was proceeding. Shortly after 7 p.m., assistant warden Randall Polk announced the stay and witnesses were led out.

Department of Corrections officials will not say if Hill was strapped to a gurney, a needle inserted in his arm to deliver deadly chemicals, during that time. A department guidelines document indicates the condemned is already in the death chamber when witnesses are brought in.

"We were prepared to proceed," said Debbie Buchanan, a spokeswoman for the department, in what she described as a prepared statement vetted by attorneys.

Robby Cunningham, also a department spokesman, said officers remain "on standby."

But Russell Schweiss, a spokesman in Bush's office, said an execution today is not expected.

Snurkowski said the death warrant signed against Hill remains valid for a week, a clock that began running at noon on Monday. If the stay is lifted, she said, the governor would discuss with the warden about readiness to conduct the execution. Another execution, of A.D. Rutherford, is scheduled for 6 p.m. next Tuesday.

For now, Hill awaits a further order from Kennedy. In his order Tuesday night he said the stay could be lifted by him alone or the entire court.

"I don't predict," Snurkowski said.

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