Attorneys for a man scheduled for execution Wednesday for nearly decapitating a store owner during a robbery are asking the governor and the U.S. Supreme Court to spare his life.

Attorneys for 30-year-old Robert Stacy Yarbrough asked the high court to step in Friday. They already had petitioned Gov. Timothy Kaine for clemency.

They argue the jury should have heard about Yarbrough's difficult upbringing by a mother addicted to drugs and alcohol before sentencing him to death. They also claim his public defender should have challenged DNA evidence used to convict him and that the prosecutor unfairly struck black potential jurors.

Yarbrough would become the 100th person executed in Virginia since capital punishment was reinstated three decades ago.