A federal appeals court Monday denied a request to stay the execution of a man scheduled to be put to death Wednesday for killing a coworker in 2001.

Attorneys for 36-year-old Christopher Scott Emmett subsequently filed a request to the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution. The high court is reviewing whether the lethal injection method most states use is cruel and unusual, based on a challenge from two inmates on death row in Kentucky.

The court is not expected to hear that case until early next year. Emmett's attorney Matthew Engle says no court should go forward with the execution until the Supreme Court has had a chance to rule on the constitutionality of the three-drug protocol.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court declined to review Emmett's case. Barring intervention from the Supreme Court or Governor Tim Kaine, Emmett is set to die Wednesday night at the Greensville Correctional Facility in Jarratt.