RALEIGH, NC - A condemned inmate scheduled for execution this week won a reprieve Wednesday when the state Supreme Court ruled he deserved a new DNA test that could back up his claim of innocence.

District Attorney Frank Parrish said he was skeptical about the need for more testing in the case of Jerry Wayne Conner, but planned to comply with the judge's order.

"I do not expect it will change anything one whit," Parrish said.

Conner, 40, was scheduled to die by injection at 2 a.m. Friday at Raleigh's Central Prison. He was sentenced to death for the 1990 shotgun slayings of Gates County store clerk Minh Rogers and her 16-year-old daughter, Linda, who was raped.

Defense lawyers argued for a new DNA test, contending current procedures are better than DNA testing at the time of trial. The defense also has pointed to another man seen near the store on the night of the slayings as a possible suspect.

"There is not a third party that will loom into view from this testing," said Parrish, who prosecuted Conner. "It's not a whodunit."

Conner has two confessions in the court record, and confessed a third time after his retrial, Parrish said.

The ruling won't be appealed, Parrish said. The only remaining question is whether the best test can be obtained from a private lab or a state lab.

Defense lawyers had refused to attend a clemency meeting with Gov. Mike Easley unless he ordered a new test, something he didn't do while waiting for the court to make its decision.

"As we have said from the beginning, we believe that a DNA test is the only way that the state of North Carolina can be confident that the right person is being punished for these crimes," said defense lawyer Mark Kleinschmidt.

Defense lawyers have argued that Conner was intimidated by officers and that police doubted some of what he said.

The defense also challenged the state's execution method in federal district court, where its arguments were rejected.

Since executions were reinstated in 1977 by the U.S. Supreme Court, 42 inmates have been put to death in North Carolina. Eleven death row inmates have had their death sentences changed either by courts or clemency by the governor. Most have been because of a ruling that banned execution of the mentally retarded.

One inmate had a death sentence commuted because of missing items from a sheriff's locker that could have been tested for DNA evidence.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, said it was rare for executions to be stopped to allow DNA testing.

Since 1973, 14 death row prisoners have been exonerated because of DNA testing after conviction, Dieter said.

In December, Virginia inmate Robin Lovitt's death sentence was commuted because evidence in his case couldn't be subjected to DNA testing. Dieter said Ohio death row inmate John Spirko's execution has been delayed several times for additional DNA tests.