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Steve Henley submits application for stay of execution.

A Tennessee man convicted of murdering an elderly Jackson County couple has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block his execution.

Steve Henley is scheduled to be executed Wednesday at 1 a.m.

On Tuesday, he asked the high court to block the execution because he wants his lawyer to ask the state to commute his sentence to life in prison, but has no way to pay for that process.

The justices currently have before them another capital case from Tennessee that concerns whether poor death row inmates seeking mercy from state officials have a right to lawyers paid for by federal taxpayers. Henley is asking the court to prevent his execution at least until that case is decided.

Henley also wants to pursue a challenge to the lethal injection process used by Tennessee to execute inmates. Lower federal courts already have ruled Henley waited to long to file his federal civil rights lawsuit. He is asking the high court to allow that suit to go forward.

http://tennessean.com/article/200902...