Convicted killer Robert Fry has asked a state District Court judge to be allowed to meet a psychologist for mental testing face-to-face and without wearing handcuffs, the Farmington Daily Times reported.

Fry, who is serving four life sentences pending his execution, did not appear in court Wednesday, but his appeal attorney Kathleen McGarry told state District Judge William Birdsall that her client suffers from brain damage that might have played a role in his trial and conviction, the Daily Times said.

McGarry argued that proper neurological testing is required and previous mental testing done on Fry was inconclusive because prison authorities have refused to allow a neuropsychologist to be alone in a room with the maximum-security inmate without handcuffs and with a protective barrier between them, the paper reported.

"My understanding is the further you get away from the conditions of standardized testing, the more you question the validity," McGarry told the judge.

Birdsall made no immediate ruling on the motion, the Daily Times said.

Fry was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2000 murder of Betty Lee, 44, of Shiprock.

He also was found guilty of the 1998 murder of Donald Tsosie, 41, of Ganado, Ariz., and the 1996 killings of Matthew Trecker, 18, and Joseph Fleming, 25, both of Farmington, the paper reported.

Two of Fry's three convictions have been upheld by the New Mexico Supreme Court, but a secondary appeal based on the mental testing is scheduled to be filed in state District Court by next February, challenging the competence of Fry's attorney in the Betty Lee murder case, the Daily Times said.

That appeal could overturn the conviction or the death sentence, the paper reported.