Less than eight hours before he was condemned to die by lethal injection, The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has granted Scott Panetti a stay of execution.

Panetti was sentenced to death for fatally shooting his in-laws in 1992.

The court granted the temporary reprieve, as reported by NBC News, in order to allow for more time to “fully consider the late arriving and complex legal questions at issue in this matter."

Scott Panetti has a well documented history of mental illness.

He was diagnosed with “early schizophrenia” 18 months after he was honorably discharged from the Navy at the age of 18.

Since 1978 he has been hospitalized for mental illness 15 separate times.

In 1986 his wife reported that he was burying furniture in the backyard because he believed the devil was inside.

In 1992, Panetti went off his medication, shaved his head, dressed up in camouflage fatigues, then went to his in-laws home and shot the couple at a point blank range, forcing his estranged wife and 3-year-old daughter to watch.

Panetti later turned himself in and insisted that he would represent himself in court. While Panetti tried to defend himself for killing his in-laws, he wore a cowboy costume and attempted to subpoena the Pope, John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ.

Panetti currently believes that Satan is working through the Texas prison officials to execute him to keep him from preaching the Gospel to inmates.

Ellen Stewart-Klein, an assistant Texas attorney general, has gone on record to say, according to an AP article, that "Panetti's assertion of severe mental illness are in doubt when compared to the multiple past findings on his sanity, competency to stand trial and competency to be executed, as well as evidence submitted by the state."

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had previously denied Panetti’s request for a stay of execution in a splintered 5-4 decision.

Panetti’s defense lawyer Kathryn Kase said after today's decision: "We are really pleased that cooler heads have prevailed."