HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A Texas appellate court reversed a judge’s order to delay Thursday night’s planned execution of a man who would become the first person in the U.S. to be put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

The ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was immediately appealed to the Texas Supreme Court as supporters of inmate Robert Roberson sought to spare him from execution for his conviction in killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002.

Gov. Greg Abbott has authority to delay Roberson’s punishment for 30 days. But Abbott has halted only one imminent execution in nearly a decade as governor.

The Texas appeals court ruling capped a flurry of legal decisions in the hours before Roberson’s scheduled lethal injection after 6 p.m. Thursday.

At the same time a state judge in Austin was issuing a temporary restraining order, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the execution, although Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a 10-page statement about the case, urged Abbott to grant a 30-day delay.