George Banks will live -- at least for now.

The state Supreme Court yesterday issued a stay of execution for Banks, 62, who was convicted of the September 1982 shooting deaths of 13 people, including his five children. He was scheduled to be put to death today at 7 p.m.

The court did not issue a lengthy opinion. Instead, it simply ordered the Luzerne County Common Pleas Court to hold a competency hearing for Banks.

Banks' attorneys appealed to the Pennsylvania high court claiming that the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 1986 decision and a 2002 decision, found that neither the insane nor the mentally retarded can be executed.

"The law is absolutely clear. If you have somebody who is not mentally competent, you can't execute him," said Al Flora Jr., Banks' defense attorney since his 1983 trial.

Flora believes that the evidence supporting his client's incompetence claim is overwhelming. Two psychiatrists have interviewed and studied Banks, and both diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia, depression and schizoaffective disorder. Banks has attempted suicide multiple times in prison.

"I'm still troubled why our county court didn't issue a stay," Flora said.

Flora filed a petition with Luzerne County and had a hearing there Monday. Judge Michael T. Conahan denied the motion for a stay, saying the petition wasn't filed in a timely manner.

But timeliness, Flora said, had nothing to do with the issue. Instead, he argued that Banks doesn't understand what execution means, and therefore he is not competent to be put to death. The prosecution presented no evidence contradicting Banks' claims, Flora said, which means the Luzerne County judge should have ordered a hearing on it, instead of making him appeal to a higher court.

Prosecutors in the case have previously said they believe it's time for the jury's will to be carried out, and that Banks should be executed to bring some closure to the victims' families, who have been waiting for 22 years.

Flora expects the competency hearing won't be held for 60 to 90 days, since the prosecution will now have to appoint a psychiatrist to evaluate Banks.

Banks was convicted of 12 counts of first-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder for the Sept. 25, 1982, shootings of seven children, three girlfriends, an ex-girlfriend, her mother and a bystander.

Before he went on the rampage with an assault rifle, Banks had worked as a tower guard for the state prison at Camp Hill. Colleagues had noticed psychological problems, and he was ordered to undergo an evaluation and counseling. He had just seen a counselor a couple days before the slayings.

Afterward, Banks, who is bi-racial, told police he killed his children to protect them from growing up in a racist world like he had.

There are 224 people currently on death row in Pennsylvania. Since the death penalty was re-enacted in the state in 1978, three people have been executed.