(AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear appeals from two men on Texas’ death row.

Arthur Brown

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused an appeal from Alabama man on Texas death row for the drug-related slayings of four people in Houston nearly 23 years ago.

Attorneys for 44-year-old Arthur Brown went to the high court after lower federal courts rejected arguments Brown should be provided $7,500 to pay for a mitigation specialist to help with his clemency petition. The specialist estimated the investigation would cost $20,000.

The justices, without comment, refused Monday to review his case.

Evidence showed Brown, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and known as “Squirt,” was part of a ring shuttling drugs between Texas and Alabama.

Six people were shot in June 1992, four fatally, in what was seen as an attempt to eliminate a Houston couple as middlemen in the drug deals.

Clifton Williams

An East Texas man on death row for the slaying of a 93-year-old woman a decade ago at her home in Tyler has lost an appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The justices Monday, without comment, refused to review the case of 31-year-old Clifton Lamar Williams.

Williams was condemned for the July 2005 beating, strangling and stabbing of Cecelia Schneider. Her body was set on fire and her car and purse containing $40 were stolen. DNA and fingerprint evidence linked the Tyler man to her slaying.

Prosecutors said he used the money to buy crack cocaine.

Appeals lawyers contended Williams had deficient legal help at his 2006 Smith County trial and that he was mentally impaired, making him ineligible for the death penalty.

Williams doesn’t yet have an execution date.