HAMMOND, Ind. — A lawyer for a man scheduled to die by lethal injection in two weeks has filed a motion for a stay of execution, saying she needs more time to file an appeal.

Marie F. Donnelly, attorney for Michael Dean Overstreet, says in a motion filed Friday in U.S. District Court that her client has several issues to argue in his appeal. She argues that her client had ineffective counsel at trial who failed to present evidence of Overstreet’s mental illness and that his trial lawyer failed to object when spectators at the trial wore buttons with pictures of the murder victim on them. She also argues that Overstreet is not competent to be executed.

Staci Schneider, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office, said such motions usually are granted when a defendant has not exhausted his federal appeals. Deputy Attorney General Steve Creason said last month he expected the appeal to be filed and he did not expect another execution to take place in Indiana for at least a year.

A telephone message seeking comment was left for Donnelly at her office in Chicago.

Overstreet, 42, was convicted in 2000 of abducting, raping and murdering 18-year-old Kelly Eckart of Boggstown in 1997. Eckart was abducted and murdered Sept. 26, 1997, as she was coming home from work. She was found in a ravine in Brown County, strangled with a bullet wound in her head.

No evidence of Overstreet’s mental illness was presented during his four-week trial, though he had been diagnosed. The defense instead tried to prove that someone else killed Eckart.