SEATTLE, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- A lawyer for a condemned Washington state inmate contends his client should have received a stay of execution from a federal judge.

Attorney Gil Levy is appealing this week's ruling by a U.S. district court in Seattle to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on the grounds that inmate Cal Brown has a right to an automatic stay under the Civil Rights Act.

"We disagree with the decision denying the stay," Levy said in announcing his plans to file another appeal on Wednesday.

The Seattle Times said U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ruled that neither the Civil Right Act nor the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees a stay of execution if an appeal has been filed.

Brown, 52, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Sept. 10 for the 1991 rape, torture and murder of Holly Washa. The 21-year-old woman's body was found in the trunk of car parked near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

If the sentence is carried out, Brown would be the first Washington inmate executed since 2001.