A Texas appeals court on Tuesday halted the execution of a man who has spent more than 30 years on death row and had been set to die by lethal injection this week over the killings of six girls and young women found buried in the desert near El Paso.

State prosecutors withheld evidence favorable to Brittany Marlow Holberg during her 1998 murder trial that resulted in her being sentenced to death, a federal appellate court panel ruled Friday.

David Wood, 67, was sentenced to death in 1992 for the killing of six woman and girls in El Paso, Texas. He has spent nearly 33 years on death row for the crimes.