A Utah man who has been on death row for nearly 30 years is back in state court fighting his 1989 capital murder conviction.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that 55-year-old Michael Anthony Archuleta's attorneys argued before the Utah Supreme Court on Wednesday that their client legally cannot be executed because he is intellectually disabled.

Archuleta's attorney, Charlotte Merril, argued that her client's previous counsel was "conflicted, underqualified and underfunded" and failed to see the "red flags" of Archuleta's disability.

Lawyers with the state countered by arguing that Archuleta's current attorneys waited until the last possible moment to raise the concern in an effort to delay appeals that have stretched for decades.

Archuleta was convicted in the brutal torture and killing of 28-year-old Southern Utah State College student Gordon Ray Church.