MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has delayed the lethal injection of an Alabama inmate as it considers his request to block the execution.

Justices issued the temporary stay at 6 p.m. Thursday, the same time that Doyle Lee Hamm was scheduled to be executed. The court will decide later whether to let the execution proceed Thursday evening.

Hamm’s attorney argued that lymphoma and past drug use have damaged his veins too much for a lethal injection. Alabama prison officials have told the courts that they plan to connect the intravenous line to usable veins in Hamm’s lower extremities.

Hamm was convicted in the 1987 killing of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham.