I thought it has been around a little longer, but according to this,
MySQL 5.7.4 introduces the ability to set server side execution time limits, specified in milliseconds, for top level read-only SELECT statements.
SELECT
/*+ MAX_EXECUTION_TIME(1000) */ --in milliseconds
*
FROM table;
Note that this only works for read-only SELECT statements.
Update: This variable was added in MySQL 5.7.4 and renamed to max_execution_time
in MySQL 5.7.8. (source)