OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma appeals court has rejected a death row inmate's request to raise new issues to challenge his death sentence.
The state Court of Criminal Appeals handed down the decision Wednesday in the case of 40-year-old Raymond Eugene Johnson.
Johnson was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by a Tulsa County jury in the June 2007 deaths of 24-year-old Brooke Whitaker and her 7-month-old daughter, Kya Whitaker.
The appeals court upheld Johnson's conviction and death sentence in 2012. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Johnson's appeal the same year.
In the latest filing, the appeals court rejected Johnson's request for a hearing on allegations that his previous attorneys have been ineffective.
His attorney, Beverly Atteberry, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.