PHOENIX (AP) -
A federal appeals court is refusing to reconsider a ruling that turned down an appeal filed on behalf of an Arizona death row inmate scheduled to be executed next week.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday rejected a request to have a larger panel of judges consider whether Daniel Wayne Cook's execution should be blocked.
A three-judge panel last week denied Cook's appeal based on a claim of ineffective legal representation during sentencing.
He's scheduled be executed Wednesday at a state prison in Florence for the 1987 strangulation murders in Lake Havasu City of 26-year-old Carlos Cruz-Ramos and 16-year-old Kevin Swaney.
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