EL PASO, Texas -- Attorneys representing a convicted El Paso serial killer asked for 10 months of preparation time before a hearing to review a mental disability claim, but a judge denied their request.

The planned execution of David Wood, 52, was put on hold last week pending the claim. If Wood is found mentally impaired, he would escape the death penalty based on a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

During a telephonic status hearing Friday, 171st District Court Judge Bonnie Rangel said, "this matter needs to be resolved, and it needs to be resolved quickly."

Rangel said three to four months should be adequate time to ensure Wood receives due process in reviewing the mental disability claim.

Wood was convicted on murder charges after the bodies of six young women were found buried in the desert in northeast El Paso in 1987.

His attorneys, Matthew Byrne and Gregory Wiercioch, from the Texas Defender Service said they're having trouble finding documents gathered, but not presented, during his 1992 trial. The documents show Wood's IQ test results. They said the documents were destroyed, and now they must find the original source. Some of these documents are from 40 years ago.

Rangel set the next status hearing for Sept. 11. In the next two weeks, she plans to draft a schedule of deadlines for the attorneys, and that could include the actual evidentiary hearing date.

Wood was not present at the hearing Friday. His presence has been waived from all preliminary matters, and he will not be transferred to El Paso until shortly before the actual hearing begins.