Lawyers for a Virginia inmate scheduled to die next week for killing a 16-year-old friend are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution.

Paul Warner Powell's lawyers argue that he was unconstitutionally convicted twice for the same crime.

Powell was convicted of Stacie Reed's capital murder in 2000. But the Virginia Supreme Court overturned that verdict because Prince William County prosecutors failed to prove Powell committed other crimes against Reed required for capital punishment.

Powell then wrote a taunting letter to prosecutors detailing how he tried to rape Reed before he killed her, so they recharged him with capital murder. He was convicted again in 2003.

A divided federal appeals panel rejected the double jeopardy argument in April.