Death-row inmate Samuel Lopez has asked the Arizona Supreme Court to delay his scheduled execution on Wednesday after a lower-court found there is a good chance the state didn’t follow the law in choosing three new members to the Board of Executive Clemency.

“As far as we are aware, if this court fails to grant a stay, Mr. Lopez will be the first inmate executed in Arizona without the opportunity to have a clemency hearing,” Lopez attorney Julie Hall wrote in her motion to the high court.

Hall asked the high court to give Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Kreamer more time to finish sorting out claims they made in a lawsuit against Gov. Jan Brewer and the clemency board.

Kreamer held oral arguments Monday and found that Lopez’s attorneys have “established a strong likelihood of success on his claim that the respondents failed to comply with the minimal requirements of the law, and therefore his due process rights were violated because he was not afforded a (clemency) hearing in a substantial sense.”

But the judge conceded that only the Supreme Court can stop an execution.

Kreamer set an evidentiary hearing on the matter for July 16. He believes Lopez might have a case on questions of whether the newest members of the board are sufficiently trained and whether new Chairman Jesse Hernandez is qualified, but he needs to hold a hearing to gather more information.

Kent Cattani, who heads the criminal appeals for the Attorney General, said the state will oppose any requests for a delay in the execution, and if Lopez is executed Wednesday the state will try to stop the evidentiary hearing in July on the basis that it would be moot.

Lopez’s attorneys filed their suit May 9, alleging that there was a host of violations of the Open Meetings Law and in the appointment process of Hernandez, Brian Livingston and Melvin Thomas, all of whom were confirmed April 18 and 19. Those violations effectively made their appointments null and void, Hall said.

Kreamer rejected most of the claims, but he honed in on claims that the new members weren’t sufficiently trained as required by statute and he also questioned whether Hernandez met the qualification that he “demonstrated an interest in the correctional system.”

Arizona law requires new members to undergo four weeks of training, but it is chronologically impossible for that to have occurred before Lopez’s May 7 clemency hearing.

His attorneys walked out of the hearing without presenting a case after Hernandez said the full five-member board was going to hear it.

The board set another hearing for today, but that has been cancelled.

Cattani argued that any lack of training doesn’t meet the standard for a clemency board to violate someone’s rights.

Cattani said case law says that when it comes to clemency boards, any violation has to be so egregious as to “shock the conscience” because a clemency hearing isn’t constitutionally guaranteed.

Solicitor General David Cole argued that Hernandez demonstrated his interest in the correctional system by applying for the board, an argument Kreamer rejected.

“There’s got to be some demonstrated interest,” Kreamer said.

Hernandez was chosen as chairman to replace Duane Belcher, who had served on the board since 1992. Hernandez has been a self-employed insurance agent and most recently worked for Congressman David Schweikert.

Lopez was convicted in the 1986 rape and murder of Estefana Holmes, 59, who was stabbed 26 times and her throat slit. His attorneys were also arguing on his behalf in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Monday, saying that his defense attorneys were incompetent at the trial level.