TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The first prisoner condemned to death in Kansas in more than three decades is again asking the state’s highest court to throw out his sentence.

The Kansas Supreme Court heard two hours of arguments Monday morning involving 60-year-old Gary Kleypas’ (KLAY’-puhs) appeal.

Kleypas was convicted of rape and murder in the death of 20-year-old Pittsburg State University student Carrie Williams in 1996.

After the state Supreme Court in 2001 overturned Kleypas’ death sentence, another jury restored it in 2008.

At the time of Williams’ death, Kleypas was on parole for a 1977 murder in Missouri.

The Kansas Supreme Court last month upheld a death sentence for the first time since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1994.