RICHMOND, VA - Michael W. Lenz could be the first person in Virginia put to death for killing a fellow inmate since the death penalty was allowed to resume in 1976.

Lenz, 42, is set to die by injection next Thursday for the savage slaying of Brent Parker, stabbed to death on Jan. 16, 2000, at the foot of a makeshift altar in Augusta Correctional Center. Parker, himself a killer, suffered 68 stab wounds.

Inmate Jeffrey Remington was also sentenced to death for the slaying but committed suicide on death row in 2004. The three inmates practiced a pagan religion called Asatru and were attending a ceremony when Parker was murdered.

According to the Virginia attorney general's office, just one other prisoner has been sentenced to death under the "killing by an inmate" provision of Virginia's capital-murder law. His sentence was commuted to life without parole.

Yesterday, Lenz's lawyers filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Also pending is a clemency petition to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

Lenz and his lawyers do not dispute his guilt.

In a 2001 interview with The Times-Dispatch, Lenz said Parker was killed because he had disrespected the gods. Lenz and Remington said they took turns stabbing Parker. Correctional officers stopped the assault.

Remington agreed in a separate interview that there were religious motives for the slaying but said there had also been a history of bad blood between Parker and Lenz. Lenz testified that Parker had twice threatened his life.

In their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday, Lenz's lawyers pointed out that some jurors had consulted a Bible while considering whether to sentence Lenz to death.

According the petition filed with the high court, after Lenz's trial, a juror said in an affidavit that "some jurors were able to point to passages in the Bible that supported the death penalty for anyone who kills another person. The Bible says the death penalty is the appropriate punishment for murder."

The lawyers contend their actions violated Lenz's right to a fair and impartial jury. During an evidentiary hearing, however, the jurors said they were not influenced by the Bible and appeals courts have rejected the rights-violation claim.

Nevertheless, Lenz argues to the justices that the problem of jurors consulting the Bible is widespread and has led to successful appeals elsewhere in the country, including the overturning of at least one death sentence.

Lenz is also challenging the way lethal injections are performed by Virginia in federal court in Richmond. Lenz refused to choose between the electric chair or lethal injection. In such cases the default method of execution is injection.

Williams Hayes of Leesburg, Fla., an expert on the history of the death penalty, said that as of early this week, at least 13 executions out of more than 1,030 nationally since 1976 -- have been for the slaying of one or more prison inmates.