Willie Jerome Manning, sentenced to death for the murder of two Mississippi State University students 30 years ago, “has had his days in court” and now an execution date can be set, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Monday.

A death row inmate in Missouri who has long claimed his innocence and is scheduled to be executed in less than one week asked the US Supreme Court on Wednesday for a stay of execution, arguing his due process rights were denied during the yearslong legal battle to save his life.

The high court's 5-4 decision will keep Willie Jerome Manning, convicted of murder in 1994, in prison in which he's spent about half his life