FILE - This April 4, 2007 file photo provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Michael Worthington who is scheduled to die for killing a female neighbour in 1995.
The US Supreme Court is weighing whether to intervene in the scheduled Missouri execution of a man condemned to death in the 1995 killing of a college student.
If carried out as scheduled at 12:01 a.m. (0401 GMT) Wednesday, 43-year-old Michael Worthington's execution will be the first in the nation since a lethal injection went awry last month in Arizona.
Worthington was sentenced to death in 1998, after he pleaded guilty to raping and strangling Melinda "Mindy" Griffin.
Worthington confessed that he broke into Griffin's apartment. He said he choked her into unconsciousness and raped her. When she regained consciousness, he strangled her.
Worthington's appeals question the secrecy involving the execution drugs, as well as flawed executions recently in three other states.