The families of two young girls who were abducted and attacked 46 years ago by a Georgia man who was scheduled to be put to death last week say they are “deeply upset and disappointed” that the execution was halted by a judge and the death warrant was allowed to expire Tuesday.

Virgil Delano Presnell Jr., 68, had been scheduled to die May 17. He killed 8-year-old Lori Ann Smith and raped her 10-year-old friend after abducting them in May 1976 as they walked home from school in Cobb County, just outside Atlanta.