A photo of two state Supreme Court justices and a lawmaker has added new controversy to a Colorado death row inmate’s case — further complicating a legal morass enveloping the state’s only two active capital punishment appeals.

Lawyers for Robert Ray say the photo calls the justices’ impartiality into question and that the justices should now remove themselves from deciding one of Ray’s appeals.

The photo shows Chief Justice Nancy Rice and Justice Nathan Coats in their robes and sitting closely on either side of state Rep. Rhonda Fields in the Capitol building. All three smile for the camera, and Coats’ left hand rests atop Fields’.

Rice and Coats, along with their five other colleagues on the Supreme Court, are currently deciding whether to hear the appeal by Ray. He was sentenced to death in 2009 for the murders of Fields’ son and Fields’ son’s fiancée.

Fields, who is running for the state Senate, used the photo without comment this year in a newsletter and fundraising pitch to supporters. The newsletter also had photos of Fields at a bill signing and speaking at a news conference.

In a motion filed last month, attorneys for Ray say the photo with the justices “presents an appearance of partiality” in favor of Fields and, thus, against Ray.

“[R]ecusal is required to maintain the integrity of these proceedings and ensure public confidence in the impartiality of the Justices who will decide this important case,” the attorneys wrote in the motion.

Ray and another man, Sir Mario Owens, were convicted in the 2005 murders in Aurora of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe. Both men were sentenced to death.

Both were also convicted in connection with an earlier murder in Aurora — a shooting at Lowry Park that Marshall-Fields witnessed and in which he was wounded. That earlier case provided a legal basis for prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Ray and Owens for the later murders.

Under Colorado law, Rhonda Fields is considered a victim with certain legal rights in both her son’s murder and the Lowry Park case. The motion was filed in Ray’s appeal of his conviction for the Lowry Park case, which, because of its link to Marshall-Fields’ and Wolfe’s killings, could topple his death sentence if overturned.

“I think they’re just looking for reasons to avoid accountability for murdering my son and his fiancée,” Fields said of the motion in a telephone interview.

Fields said she doesn’t have any kind of relationship with the justices outside of legislative work and said the photo was a typical snapshot that lawmakers and justices often take at official events. She said the photo was taken at the State of the State speech in 2015, though the motion says it was taken at this year’s speech.

“I’m offended that they would take this approach,” Fields said of Ray’s defense.

Melissa Hart, a University of Colorado law professor, said judges must recuse themselves from a case when they aren’t impartial — for instance, when they worked for one side on the case in a previous job — or when there is a strong appearance of impartiality. But it’s often a nuanced decision, and, for Supreme Court cases, there is nowhere to appeal a justice’s decision not to recuse.

Hart said the photo itself probably isn’t enough for the justices to take themselves off the case, but the fact that it was used in a political fundraising e-mail complicates the matter.

“That does create an appearance of closeness between them that I think is not likely there, but it does create a different feel to the problem,” Hart said.

There is no time frame for the justices to rule on the recusal motion.

Regardless of their decision, the motion adds further complications to Ray’s and Owens’ cases. Both of their appeals of their death sentences are stuck at the first step of the process with months or years still to go before even an initial ruling. Ray’s attorneys in the death penalty case have threatened to quit in a dispute with a judge, while Owens’ attorneys unsuccessfully sought to have a different judge — fired abruptly from their case — reinstated.