Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson sat praying in a cell Thursday night just feet from the execution chamber where he was set to be put to death for the murder of his toddler – even as the state and his attorneys exchanged frantic 11th-hour legal maneuvers to determine his fate before the clock ran out.

A judge granted a request to delay the execution of a man scheduled to become the first person in the U.S. put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

The stay came mere hours before Robert Roberson was poised to become the first person in the U.S. executed for a murder conviction linked to shaken baby syndrome.