A federal appeals court in Manhattan has upheld the death sentence for Donald Fell, who killed a Vermont supermarket worker as she prayed for her life.

It’s the first time since the 1960s that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled on whether to uphold the death penalty for an individual.

Fell is on death row in Terre Haute, Ind. He was the first man sentenced to death in Vermont in almost 50 years.

He was convicted of carjacking and kidnapping. Terry King was driven to upstate New York, then beaten and kicked to death, in November 2000.

Before that, Fell and an accomplice killed his mother and her companion in Rutland, Vt.