ATLANTA --- The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles hastily scheduled a clemency hearing for convicted killer Jack Alderman after a judge ruled Monday that his execution could not proceed without one.

Mr. Alderman, 57, is Georgia's longest-serving death row inmate. If the five-member board denies clemency his execution could go forward as scheduled at 7 p.m. today. Mr. Alderman's legal team also has asked the Georgia Supreme Court for a stay.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland on Monday halted Mr. Alderman's execution until the state Board of Pardons and Paroles provides a second hearing to allow supporters to explain why Mr. Alderman's life should be spared.

"If the state is going to impose the extreme punishment of death ... due process of the law is never more important," Judge Westmoreland said.

Mr. Alderman has been on death row for 33 years. He was sentenced to die for the 1974 slaying of his wife, Barbara, in Chatham County. Mr. Alderman and an accomplice beat her, choked her and dumped her body in a creek near her family's home in Rincon. Prosecutors said the two wanted to collect $20,000 in life insurance money.

Judge Westmoreland's decision Monday is the second time Mr. Alderman has received a last-minute reprieve. Last October, the Georgia Supreme Court issued a stay on the eve of his scheduled execution to allow the U.S. Supreme Court to sort out constitutional questions surrounding the use of lethal injection.

Before that stay, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles held a hearing where Mr. Alderman's lawyers challenged the state's lethal injection protocol but bypassed the more traditional plea for clemency. In its decision, the board said although Mr. Alderman's lawyers had not sought clemency they considered -- and rejected -- it after reviewing written statements on Mr. Alderman's behalf.

On Monday, Mr. Alderman's lawyer, James Ringer, said that was not enough to provide a "meaningful" review. He said numerous witnesses are prepared to speak on Mr. Alderman's behalf and should be allowed to make their case in person to the board.

But Senior Assistant Attorney General Joseph Drolet said the state had lived up to its obligation under the law with last year's hearing.

"There is nothing in the Georgia constitution ... that requires us to go beyond that," Mr. Drolet said.

Since 1995, the state parole board has considered 24 death sentences and commuted only three. The most recent was in May, when the board commuted the sentence of convicted killer Samuel David Crowe to life without possibility of parole.