The high court granted a stay of execution for Florida inmate Anthony Bryan who had been scheduled to be put to death by electrocution on Wednesday and said it would consider whether to uphold or strike down the procedure.

A court spokesman said a decision on the punishment was not expected until early next year. Until a ruling is handed down, neither Bryan, nor any other Florida inmate, can be executed by the electric chair.

Bryan was sentenced to death in 1986 for the kidnapping and murder in 1983 of George Wilson, a night watchman for a seafood company in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Controversy

The use of the electric chair has caused controversy in Florida after a number of problems occurred in earlier executions.

During the execution of Allen Lee Davis in July, blood flowed from his nose. Witness accounts and photographs taken immediately after the execution also raised the possibility that a strap covering Davis' mouth had caused him partially to asphyxiate.

Blood flowed from the nose of Allen Davis

During two other executions in 1990 and 1997, flames burst from the headpiece worn by condemned Florida killers as they were put to death.

Florida is just one of four states - alongside Alabama, Georgia and Nebraska - that requires condemned killers to be put to death by electrocution. Most of the 38 states with capital punishment have switched to lethal injection.

The Supreme Court has not reviewed the electric chair as a method of execution since 1890, when New York became the first state to approve its use.

Lethal injection

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 421 executions have been carried out by lethal injection while there have been 144 electrocutions, the Death Penalty Information Centre said.

The group, which opposes capital punishment, said 11 inmates had been executed in the gas chamber, three put to death by hanging and two executed by firing squads since 1976.

The Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for Bryan after Florida's Supreme Court postponed his death until Friday.

Florida's Supreme Court last month upheld the constitutionality of the electric chair by a 4-3 vote, ruling that it did not violate the Eighth Amendment's provision against cruel and unusual punishment.