HELENA -- A coalition of civil liberties groups are focusing their efforts to stall the upcoming execution of triple-murderer David Dawson on state courts, withdrawing an earlier effort to fight the execution in a federal appeals court in California.

The groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, has withdrawn its notice of appeal filed this week with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in California.

The groups filed the appeal after U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula threw out Monday their effort to postpone Dawson's execution by lethal injection. The groups argue that lethal injection -- the only execution method allowed in Montana -- may cause the condemned to suffer before death and violate the constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual punishment.''

Dawson is scheduled to be put to death early on Friday morning.

Ron Waterman, the Helena lawyer representing the groups, said Tuesday he filed the notice of appeal only because Molloy required both sides to say if they intended to appeal the decision immediately following Molloy's decision.

At the time, Waterman said, one of the groups he represents had not yet decided whether it wanted to appeal, so Waterman filed the notice just to be careful.

By Tuesday, Waterman said the group had decided not to take the case to the California appeals court, so Waterman asked the court to dismiss his earlier notice.

The case is now slated to be heard before District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock in Helena at 2 p.m. Wednesday, just two days before the scheduled execution.

Dawson was convicted of kidnapping a Billings family at a hotel in 1986 and murdering all but one of the family members. Billings police found the family's teenage daughter unharmed when they burst into the hotel room. Dawson had killed her mother, father and 11-year-old brother.

Dawson two years ago abandoned all efforts to stall his execution and has asked to be put to death as scheduled. He has disavowed the latest effort to spare his life.

The groups argue that some studies show people executed by lethal injection may be conscious at the time of death, able to experience the considerable pain associated with the lethal injection drugs used. Furthermore, they argue, the executioner should have some kind of medical training. That way he or she can know if the drugs used in lethal injection truly render the condemned unconscious before death.

The Montana attorney general's office, arguing for the state, has countered that Montana's lethal injection method more than passes muster and that the groups have no standing to challenge the death because they will not be especially affected by the sentence.

The groups have twice asked the Montana Supreme Court to intervene, but were shot down both times. Next, the groups took their case to U.S. District Court in Missoula, where they also lost this week.

Should Sherlock rule against the groups, they will still have the option of taking the case back before the Montana Supreme Court.

In their previous rebuffs, justices wrote that they did not rule on the merits of the case, only on the fact that the high court could not intervene.

Documents from the case's many turns have been forwarded to the Montana State Prison for Dawson.

Should the death proceed, he will be the third person executed by lethal injection in Montana and the third person put to death since 1943.