HOUSTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to consider an appeal from an East Texas man facing execution in March for a shootout that left two Henderson County sheriff's deputies dead nearly eight years ago.

The justices made no comment Monday in turning down 55-year-old Randall Wayne Mays.

He's scheduled to die March 18.

A federal appeals court last July rejected arguments the former welder and oilfield worker had deficient legal help at his 2008 trial and that executing him would be unconstitutionally cruel because he's mentally ill.

Mays was convicted of slaying sheriff's deputy Tony Ogburn. A second officer, Paul Habelt, also was killed and a third was wounded. The shootings occurred after Mays barricaded himself in his house in Payne Springs, about 55 miles southeast of Dallas.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

More From KTEM-AM