TALLAHASSEE -- A drug trafficker convicted of killing a state trooper is asking the Florida Supreme Court to block his scheduled Feb. 26 execution.

Lawyers for Paul Augustus Howell asked the justices for a stay of execution and filed a post-conviction appeal on Wednesday.

Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey previously denied Howell's appeal in Jefferson County. That's where Trooper Jimmy Fulford was killed by an exploding pipe bomb in February 1992.