Lawyers for a condemned man who is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 10 have asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to issue a stay.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour denied to block Cal Coburn Brown's execution, saying that filing for a court injunction based on the Civil Rights Act and the Eighth Amendment does not entitle a death-row defendant to an automatic stay. On Thursday, Seattle lawyers Gil Levy and Suzanne Elliott filed an emergency motion for a stay of execution with the San Francisco-based appellate court.

In the 29-page filing, Brown's lawyer are asking the court to "stay his [Brown's] execution pending completion of discovery and a full and fair hearing in District Court." Brown's lawyers say in court filings they are concerned with the training and qualifications of the Department of Corrections employees who are scheduled to administer the lethal injection used in the death chamber.

Judith Kay, an ethics professor at the University of Puget Sound, said she has been in contact with Brown and other death row inmates for nearly 10 years. Kay said she met with Brown at the Washington State Penitentiary, in Walla Walla, last week and said that he remains hopeful an appeals court would grant a stay.

"He said it's not going to be over until it's really, really over," said Kay, who is opposed to the death penalty. "He's anxious and nervous but handling it well."

If the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denies to issue a stay, it is likely that Brown's lawyers will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Brown, 52, was convicted of the 1991 rape, torture and murder of Holly Washa, 21, whose body was found in the trunk of her car in a parking lot near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Her throat had been slashed, and she had been tortured and raped repeatedly.

Brown's execution was stayed by the state Supreme Court in March 2009, less than eight hours before he was scheduled to die, because of an argument over the way the state performs lethal injections. In July, the state Supreme Court lifted the stay.

The last person to be executed in Washington state was James Elledge, 58, who died by lethal injection in August 2001 for the 1998 strangling and stabbing of Eloise Jane Fitzner, 47, at a Lynnwood church.