On Wednesday (April 20), the South Carolina Supreme Court reportedly issued a temporary stay blocking the state from carrying out what was going to be its first-ever firing squad execution.

According to the Associated Press, the order temporarily halts the scheduled April 29 execution of Richard Bernard Moore, who was sentenced to die for the 1999 killing of convenience store clerk James Mahoney in Spartanburg. Moore’s execution would be the first in the southern state since 2011 and he’d be only the fourth person in America to die by firing squad in nearly 50 years.

South Carolina is one of eight states to still use the electric chair and one of just four that employs a firing squad.

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“I believe this election is forcing me to choose between two unconstitutional methods of execution, and I do not intend to waive any challenges to electrocution or firing squad by making an election,” Moore said in the statement, while also noting that he only chose a firing squad because he was forced to make a decision.

The state’s new law came about after corrections officials weren’t able to procure the drugs needed to carry out lethal injections. Moore’s attorneys had previously asked the state Supreme Court to delay his execution while another court determined if the current methods available are cruel and unusual punishment. Moore’s lawyers also wanted time to ask the U.S. Supreme court to review whether Moore’s sentence was proportionate to his crime.

The court said in issuing the temporary stay that it would release a more detailed order later.

The last execution by firing squad in the United States was of Ronnie Lee Gardner, at Utah State Prison in 2010. Only Utah, South Carolina, Mississippi and Oklahoma allow that method of execution. Most other states use lethal injection.