Attorneys for an Alabama death row inmate scheduled to be executed in less than four weeks have asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether the state illegally obtained its supply of the execution drug sodium thiopental.

Attorneys Bryan Stevenson and Angela Setzer told Holder in a letter that Alabama has obtained its sodium thiopental from the state of Tennessee. Tennessee's supply of the execution drug has been seized by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration because of concerns it was illegally obtained from overseas.

Alabama prisons spokesman Brian Corbett declined to comment about the letter to Holder or on claims the state bought sodium thiopental from Tennessee.

The attorneys asked Holder to prevent the state from using the drug to kill their client, Jason Oric Williams of Mobile.

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