Court sets December execution date for 1985 killing

Henderson, 45, was convicted of aggravated murder, burglary and attempted rape in the attack on Acoff. Acoff had fought with her attacker and was beaten and repeatedly stabbed before her body was found in her apartment by her 10-year-old daughter.

In July 2003, U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel set Henderson's death sentence aside based on an appeal of his conviction because of faulty instructions to the jury. In June, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati overturned that ruling.

Earlier this month the appeals court denied Henderson's request for a hearing by the full court.

Lawyers had also previously challenged Henderson's conviction on the basis that 2003 DNA testing found no evidence of semen in Acoff's body. The state argued that the test found Acoff's blood on his coat.