BATON ROUGE - A federal judge's order bars Louisiana from carrying out its next scheduled execution before January 2018.

Attorney General Jeff Landry's office asked U.S. District Judge James Brady to extend an earlier order that kept Christopher Sepulvado's execution on hold. Brady granted the 18-month extension in an order dated Tuesday.

Brady's order only applies to five death-row inmates who are plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Louisiana's method of lethal injection. But others can join the litigation if an execution date is set.

Shauna Sanford, a spokeswoman for Gov. John Bel Edwards, said the administration supports Landry's request for the delay.

The state corrections department has said it doesn't have the drugs necessary to carry out a lethal injection.

Sepulvado was convicted of fatally beating and scalding his 6-year-old stepson in 1992.