A team of leading UK lawyers has succeeded in an eleventh-hour attempt to halt the execution of America's longest-serving prisoner on death row.

Jack Alderman was due to be executed today by lethal injection. On Wednesday, he distributed his possessions to other prisoners before being moved to the execution building in his Georgia jail.

But the execution has been stayed following days of round-the-clock effort by Clifford Chance, the world's largest law firm, and a team of London-based barristers led by Richard Lissack, QC, from Outer Temple Chambers.

Lawyers had argued that the execution should be stayed pending an appeal before the US Supreme Court on the legality of death by lethal injection. Several other states have stayed their executions but until yesterday, only Georgia had refused to do so.

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Richard Lissack, QC, said: "A gross injustice has been avoided. But the fight to exonerate Jack and redress the greater injustice has just begun."

Other prominent London legal figures including Geoffrey Vos, chairman of the Bar Council, and Lord Goldsmith, the former Attorney-General, have also lent their weight to Mr Alderman's campaign.

The stay of execution, which cannot be appealed, will stand until after February 2008 when the case before the US Supreme Court is heard. America’s most senior court will decide if lethal injection breaches the US Constitution as "cruel or inhuman" punishment.

It is the first time that the Supreme Court has examined the issue since 2004 and the only time it has ruled directly on a method of execution since 1878 when it upheld the use of the firing squad.

However, Mr Alderman’s team of lawyers are already working on building a case to prove that his original conviction was flawed in the hope that a court will order a re-trial.

Jeremy Sandelson, the Clifford Chance partner who led the UK legal team, said: “We already have enough evidence to apply for a re-trial but we are busy building the strongest case possible.”

Mr Alderman was convicted in June 1975 of the murder of his wife and sentenced to death in the Superior Court of Chatham County, Georgia. He has always protested his innocence.

For nearly 32 years he has lived on "death row" in prison awaiting execution. Lawyers argue that his extended incarceration on "death row", coupled with his proposed execution and manner of it, are all individually unconstitutional and illegal.

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