NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WVLT) -- The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Tuesday denied a last-day stay of execution appeal by Tennessee death row inmate Cecil C. Johnson Jr., 53. Johnson has been on death row for 28 years, and is to be executed early Wednesday for a triple murder during a Nashville robbery.

Johnson is to be put to death by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution for the 1980 slayings at a market. He was sentenced to death in 1981.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Echols refused on Monday to halt the execution, saying he lacks jurisdiction, though he did order filings transferred to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, where the motion was denied Tuesday. Gov. Phil Bredesen denied executive clemency for Johnson last Wednesday.

Johnson would be the sixth person executed in Tennessee since 2000. There were no executions between 1961 and 2000.

An attempt to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court would likely be unsuccessful before the midnight CST execution deadline.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Information from Volunteer TV News was used in this report.)