(July 17, 2008)--A federal appeals court has denied a third retrial for former high school valedictorian and University of Texas honors student David Lee Powell, 57, who was sentenced to death by three separate juries for killing an Austin police officer with an automatic assault rifle 30 years ago.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction and death sentence in a ruling posted late Wednesday.

The New Orleans-based appeals court agreed last month that Powell could consider three appeal claims, but in its ruling upheld a lower court ruling rejecting those claims.

Albanedo died in a hail of gunfire from a Russian-made AK-47 after he stopped a car driven by Powell’s girlfriend in May 1978 near downtown Austin for not having a rear license tag.

Evidence showed that Powell, who was a passenger, opened fire on Albanedo.

The officer was struck at least four times, but managed to reach his radio, call for help and provide a description of his assailant.

He later died in an Austin hospital.

In his time on death row, and off drugs, court records show Powell has become a model prisoner.

Of the 367 prisoners on death row in Texas, only five others have served more time there than Powell, who arrived on death row in October 1978, a month after his first conviction.

His most recent retrial was in 1999.

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