A panel of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals says Virginia's method of executing inmates by lethal injection is constitutional.

In a 2-1 decision, the panel rejected the argument of condemned inmate Christopher Scott Emmett. He claimed the state Department of Corrections presents a substantial risk of harm because it does not allow the option of a second dose of anesthesia to make sure the inmate is unconscious before paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs are injected.

Emmett is scheduled to be executed July 24 for the 2001 bludgeoning death of a co-worker in Danville.

The ruling came Thursday, the day another inmate, Kent Jermaine Jackson, was scheduled to die by lethal injection.