The Supreme Court has granted a temporary reprieve to a Virginia death row inmate who had been facing a July execution for murdering a police officer.

The high court plans to hear arguments in the case of Edward Nathaniel Bell this fall. It will consider whether lower courts correctly weighed his claim that his lawyer did a poor job of representing him.

The 40-year-old asked the court to step into his case, arguing that he could have been spared a death sentence if his lawyer had done a better job of representing him during the sentencing phase of his trial.

His execution was previously delayed by the Supreme Court's consideration of lethal injection procedures. The court upheld the execution method last month.

Bell was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 for killing Winchester Police Sgt. Ricky Timbrook in October 1999.