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The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily halted the scheduled execution of former police officer James Aren Duckett, according to the Associated Press. Duckett, who was 68 and was set to receive a three-drug injection on Tuesday, will not be executed as scheduled after the court issued the stay, the report said.

The court’s order also required the state to address the status of DNA testing Duckett had sought as part of his appeals process. The Associated Press reported that the DNA testing is still pending and that the Florida Supreme Court directed the state to respond by 5 p.m. Friday.

Duckett was sentenced to death in 1988 after he was convicted of first-degree murder and sexual battery, the AP said. The execution plan referenced in the court action had him scheduled for Florida State Prison near Starke, according to the report.

In the appeals record described by the AP, Duckett had argued that additional DNA testing could exonerate him. A circuit court granted the request, and the Florida Supreme Court’s Thursday stay tied the execution timeline to the pending testing and the state’s response.

The AP said Duckett worked as a police officer in Mascotte, a small city west of Orlando, and that he was on patrol the night of May 11, 1987, when 11-year-old Teresa McAbee disappeared. The report said McAbee was last seen getting into Duckett’s patrol car at a convenience store.

McAbee’s body was found in a lake the next morning less than a mile from the store, according to court records summarized by the AP. The AP reported that a medical examiner determined she was sexually assaulted and then drowned, and that blood and hair linked her to Duckett.

The AP said prosecutors also relied on forensic evidence, including fingerprints and tire tracks. It reported that distinct tire tracks found at the lake matched the tires on Mascotte patrol cars and that Duckett’s and McAbee’s fingerprints were found on the hood of Duckett’s car.

At trial, the AP reported that three teen girls testified that Duckett had previously given rides to each of them and had made sexual advances. The AP also noted that all Florida executions are carried out by lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, citing the state Department of Corrections.

The stay came as Florida maintained a high execution pace, the AP said. It reported that Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw a record 19 executions last year, including more than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and that the previous record was eight executions in 2014.