GREENVILLE (AP) — A federal judge has denied an appeal by death row inmate Willie Jerome Manning, the man accused of killing Natchez native Jon Steckler.

Manning was sentenced to death in the 1992 murders of two Mississippi State University students.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo reports that U.S. District Judge Allen Pepper on Tuesday threw out Manning’s appeal. Pepper said Manning failed to prove any of his claims.

However, Pepper said Manning could file an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on the issues of ineffective counsel and whether blacks were inappropriately excluded from his Oktibbeha County jury. Manning is black.

Manning was found guilty in 1994 in the shooting deaths of Steckler and Tiffany Miller.