BALTIMORE – The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for the execution of a convicted murderer who contends Maryland’s execution method is illegal.

The high court threw out a stay of execution given to convicted killer Steven Oken and denied Oken’s request for another stay based on Maryland’s method of performing lethal injections.

The stay of execution had been upheld earlier Wednesday by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. Maryland’s attorney general’s office immediately filed a request asking that the stay be lifted to allow Oken to be executed this week as scheduled.

U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte issued a ruling Tuesday delaying the execution indefinitely and scheduled a hearing next month on a claim by his lawyers that the method of execution may not keep him from feeling pain.

Oken, 42, was sentenced to death for the 1987 rape and murder of Dawn Marie Garvin, a 20-year-old newlywed, in White Marsh. He also was convicted of killing Patricia Hirt, his wife’s sister, and Lori Ward, a motel clerk in Maine, during a 15-day spree.

Defense lawyers have questioned whether a barbiturate that was to be the first of three drugs administered to Oken would keep him from feeling pain, inflicting cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The high court handed down the orders Wednesday at 7:35 p.m. The Supreme Court did not say how each justice voted, but three justices – John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer – went on record opposing the majority’s action.

“We’re obviously disappointed,” Fred Warren Bennett, one of Oken’s lawyers, said late Wednesday. “We’ll communicate with our client and see what has to be done. There will be no further action taken today. We’ll review the matter and take what action we deem appropriate tomorrow.”

Bennett said he had previously filed a petition for clemency with Gov. Robert Ehrlich.

Shareese Deleaver, a spokeswoman for Gov. Robert Ehrlich, said late Wednesday, “The governor isn’t going to make any decision tonight. The governor has said that each appeal for clemency will receive his full attention,”

which this case will receive.

“The governor will have conversations with his legal counsel and his senior staff, including the lieutenant governor (Michael Steele), who is traveling abroad in Africa, and will make his decision shortly.

“He recognizes the separation of powers, and once all legal options are exhausted, he will make a decision.”

A spokesman for the state attorney general’s office declined to comment.

The death warrant expires at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. A judge would have to approve another warrant for the execution to happen after that. There is a minimum four-week waiting period between the time an execution warrant is signed and the day it can take place.

Outside the prison where Oken would be executed, Fred J. Romano, Garvin’s father, marched with about a dozen death penalty supporters. He carried a sign that read “Score one for victims.” The back of the sign had pictures of Oken’s three victims.

Romano received word about 7:55 p.m. that the high court had vacated the stay.

“I was elated,” Romano said, adding that cheers broke out among the crowd as he shouted out the news. “This is a win for us. This is a good win.

“Today was stressful. We just kept waiting and waiting. We were in a really down mood today.”

Michael Stark of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and a group of about 30 people who oppose the death penalty who were also at the prison, “This is a tragedy,” comparing it to the murders Oken committed.

“The state of Maryland is about to murder someone in our name.”