LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) _ Attorney General Jon Bruning says he's confident Nebraska's new lethal-injection law will withstand a legal challenge filed today on behalf of death-row inmate Raymond Mata of Scottsbluff.

Bruning says the law passed by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Dave Heimeman just five days ago takes into account what other states have done and what the U.S. Supreme Court has approved.

The lawsuit filed by attorney Jerry Soucie on behalf of Mata alleges that it's unconstitutional for the Legislature to give the state Department of Correctional Services the job of coming up with the exact lethal-injection protocol, such as what drugs to use.

Soucie, in the appeal, says Mata is facing an October deadline to file appeals in federal court, placing him in an "untenable procedural position" to challenge the lethal-injection protocol.

Bruning says departments of corrections in 22 other states have successfully developed lethal injection protocols.

Mata is on death row for the grisly murder of his girlfriend's three year old son Adam Gomez.