LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky death row inmate facing execution in less than two weeks lost a challenge to the state’s lethal injection method when a federal appeals court on Friday found he waited too long to sue.

 

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that 53-year-old Gregory Lee Wilson couldn’t show that Kentucky readopting its execution regulations in May stopped the clock and allowed him to attack the way the state handles executions.

 

“Here, the state merely adopted its preexisting protocol as a regulation, making no material changes to the method of execution,” Judge Danny Boggs wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel. “As it relates to Wilson’s claims, the new regulation is indistinguishable from the previous lethal injection protocol.”

 

The ruling closes another legal avenue for Wilson, who is moving toward a Sept. 16 execution. A jury sentenced Wilson to death in 1988 for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Deborah Pooley in northern Kentucky a year earlier. A co-defendant in the case, Brenda Humphrey, is serving a life sentence.

 

Wilson, who has convictions for rape in Ohio, challenged the lethal injection method, along with the use of sedatives given to an inmate before an execution, saying they interfered with the deadly three-drug cocktail. U.S. District Judge Karen Coffman dismissed the suit in September 2009, saying Wilson should have sued sooner.

 

The Kentucky Supreme Court halted all executions in the state in November, ruling that the Department of Corrections had improperly adopted the regulations governing executions. The state put new regulations in place in May and Gov. Steve Beshear signed a warrant on Aug. 25 setting Wilson’s execution date.

 

Wilson has also intervened in a separate case brought by three other death row inmates challenging the way Kentucky adopted the lethal injection protocol.

 

The attorney in that case, public defender David Barron, has asked a judge in Frankfort to enforce an injunction halting all executions the Kentucky Supreme Court. A hearing has been set for Sept. 8.

 

A state judge on Wednesday turned away a request by Wilson to stop the execution to allow DNA testing on old evidence in the case and to allow experts to see if he’s mentally retarded and ineligible for execution.

 

Kenton Circuit Judge Gregory Bartlett said there was “overwhelming evidence” of Wilson’s guilt and little evidence of mental retardation.

 

Kentucky has executed three people since 1976. Harold McQueen was executed in the electric chair in 1997 for killing a convenience store clerk in 1981. Eddie Lee Harper was executed by lethal injection in 1999. Marco Allen Chapman was executed by lethal injection in November.
 

National Video