A death-row inmate who may be the next person scheduled to die in Arkansas after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upheld lethal injection has challenged the state's plans to carry out the death penalty under a revised protocol.

Frank Williams Jr. filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court, saying state officials violated state law by adopting new regulations without giving the public notice and an opportunity to comment on proposed revisions.

Williams is seeking a court ruling that the revised Arkansas plan is invalid and should not be enforced.

Last month, the Supreme Court said in a case brought by Kentucky death-row inmates that the prisoners failed to show the state's refusal to try untested alternatives constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Scheduled executions that had been put on hold in several states, including Arkansas, were then up for reconsideration.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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