A Texas appeals court on Tuesday halted the execution of a man who has spent more than 30 years on death row and had been set to die by lethal injection this week over the killings of six girls and young women found buried in the desert near El Paso.

David Wood, 67, was sentenced to death in 1992 for the killing of six woman and girls in El Paso, Texas. He has spent nearly 33 years on death row for the crimes.

The state's Court of Criminal Appeals halted death row inmate David Leonard Wood's execution two days before it was set to happen.