11.   The court issued a stay of his execution.

12.   The court issued a stay of the scheduled execution of Ronald Keith Spivey just hours before he was to be strapped into the electric chair.

13.   The judge is well known in legal circles, and three members of the Supreme Court disqualified themselves when the tribunal refused on Monday to issue a stay.

14.   The stay was issued one day after the Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole voted unanimously to recommend that Gov. Don Sundquist not grant clemency.

15.   The Supreme Court declined to issue a stay Tuesday afternoon.

16.   The reversal of those policies began within hours of the appeals court issuing its stay Friday.

17.   Two days later, the appeals court issued a stay blocking the injunction.

18.   Two days later, and hours before the injunction would have taken effect, the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a stay.

19.   A state judge then issued the stay, ruling that Easley may have had a conflict of interest and may have violated the constitutional principles of separation of powers.

20.   But a federal judge issued a stay of execution hours after the state Supreme Court had denied a similar request.