Supreme Court-AP -- A convicted triple-murderer told a jury he wanted to be sent to Alabama's electric chair. But when his date with the executioner came, the chair was no longer in use and the man objected to lethal injection.

David Larry Nelson claims his collapsed veins will make the punishment unconstitutionally cruel unless special precautions are taken.

The Supreme Court takes up Nelson's case today, to decide whether last-minute appeals from death row inmates should be allowed in federal courts.

Nelson's case has prompted legal challenges to the types of drug ****tails used in lethal injections in other states. And justices have clashed in a string of emergency appeals from inmates who claim their own lethal injections would be unconstitutional.

Alabama claims Nelson's case is a prime example of the need for limits on appeals. He has been on death row more than 20 years.

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