A prisoner on death row in Kentucky has launched a legal case claiming he has been denied access to kosher meals while in jail.

William Harry Meece, a convicted murderer, was removed from the prison's kosher programme after he ate an unlabelled rotisserie chicken.

Inmates who sign up to the US state's policy on maintaining a kosher diet agree to "not purchase, possess or consume any food items that are not permitted under my religious diet".

The prison said Meece's chicken dinner violated the rule. But the Jewish prisoner, who is a member of a Reform synagogue in Lexington, Kentucky, said that because he is not Orthodox he does not have to be limited to food with a hechsher, the New York Times reported.

The prisoner has sued over his religious rights before.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled that he was allowed to pray in his cell on a Saturday after he argued he should have the right to worship in the prison chapel on Shabbat rather than on Sunday.

The prisoner is awaiting execution for killing three members of a family.