ATMORE, Ala. -- (AP) -- His clemency request denied, Robert Lee Tarver had already eaten what looked to be his last meal when the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in with a stay.

Tarver, 52, had been set to die in Alabama's electric chair at 12:01 a.m. today for committing a 1984 robbery and fatal shooting. With three hours to go, the high court stayed the execution of a man who said his electrocution would violate his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment.

Prison commissioner Mike Haley said state officials did not know the reasons behind the ruling. But Bryan Stevenson, an attorney for Tarver, said he expects the ruling ``will create an opportunity to further discuss whether Alabama should be one of the few states that continues to execute condemned prisoners by electrocution.''

Tarver was convicted of robbing and killing Hugh Sims Kite, 63, outside his bait shop and grocery in Cottonton, near the Georgia line. Prosecutors said Tarver shot Kite several times and stole his wallet.

The Supreme Court had agreed to review Florida's use of the electric chair. But last month it decided not to act on the issue because Florida changed its law, making lethal injection the primary method of execution and the electric chair an alternative method.

Only Alabama, Nebraska and Georgia use the electric chair as their sole means of execution.

Alabama officials, in response to Tarver's appeal, said death in the chair is almost painless and instantaneous.

Stevenson also argued in clemency requests that blacks were wrongly excluded from serving on Tarver's jury. A jury of 11 whites and one black convicted the black defendant of killing Kite, a white man.