Richard Laird execution for anti-gay hate murder put on hold in Pa.

(CBS) - The execution of Richard Laird, who was sentenced to death in two different  trials for the murder of Pennsylvania artist Anthony Milano, has been put on hold, according to a report.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett signed a death warrant calling for Laird to be executed next Thursday, May 12, for the murder of Milano in 1987, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

But, on April 18, Judge Rea B. Boylan granted a stay of execution while Laird's attorneys pursue post-conviction appeals. He gave Laird's lawyers until June 17 to file an amended petition, and set an Oct. 17 deadline for prosecutors to respond, reports the paper.

A day later, U.S. District Court Judge Jan E. DuBois granted a stay in federal court. 

Two juries, one in 1988 and another in 2007, both convicted and sentenced Laird, 47, to death for his role in the murder of the 26-year-old Milano. Prosecutors say he was targeted because he was gay, reports the Inquirer.

In 2001, DuBois had overturned Laird's original conviction on a number of grounds. He was retried in 2007 and once again sentenced to death.

Prosecutors said Laird and his friend Frank Chester harassed Milano at a bar because he was gay. They then forced him to drive them home, reports the paper.

Milano was later found dead along a road, beaten and slashed in the throat so many times that his spinal cord was severed.

Chester also received a death sentence, though it was recently overturned. Prosecutors are still contesting that decision.