LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska death row inmate John Lotter, of Falls City,  is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his challenge to his death sentence.     

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Lotter is asking the country's highest court to review a U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals order issued in July denying his motion to proceed with an appeal in federal court.

Lotter is challenging Nebraska's three-judge method for determining death sentences. He cites a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Florida's death penalty process, saying it gave too much power to judges to make the ultimate decision.     

Lotter was condemned in 1996 for his role in the 1993 slaying of Teena Brandon, a 21-year-old woman who lived briefly as a man, and two witnesses, Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine, at a rural Humboldt farmhouse.