HARTFORD — Former Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano is back before the U.S. Supreme Court in another appeal of his 37-year prison sentence for sexually abusing two young girls while in office.

Giordano is challenging a decision by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in June to dismiss his request to set aside or correct his sentence. Giordano argues that the prison sentence is unconstitutional and that his lawyer during his 2003 trial, Andrew Bowman, made mistakes, including not informing him of plea bargains offered by prosecutors.

Bowman denies he provided ineffective counsel, and lower courts agreed with him.

The Supreme Court is set to discuss the case Friday to determine whether it will hear the appeal. The high court has refused to hear two previous appeals by Giordano.

"We're certain that the court will review the claim, and we're very hopeful they will rule in our favor," said Giordano's appellate lawyer, Aaron Romano.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment.

A federal jury convicted Giordano in 2003 of violating the girls' civil rights by sexually abusing them in 2000 and 2001 while he was in office. The abuse came to light as federal investigators were looking into possible corruption at Waterbury City Hall. He also was convicted of paying a crack-addicted prostitute, who was the mother of one of the victims and aunt of the other, to bring the girls to him for sexual encounters.

The two cousins, ages 8 and 10 at the time of the abuse, testified at the trial on closed-circuit television from another location that they were forced to perform oral sex on Giordano and described sexual encounters with the mayor in City Hall, his law office, his house, his car and a friend's apartment.

He was convicted and sentenced to 37 years in prison. He also was sentenced to 18 years in prison on state child-sex charges related to the same abuse after pleading no contest.

Giordano, 53, a Republican and former lawyer who ran an unsuccessful campaign against U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in 2000, is detained at the federal prison in Tucson, Arizona, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He has repeatedly maintained his innocence.

He alleges Bowman failed to inform him of plea bargains in which federal prosecutors offered a 15-year prison sentence and state prosecutors offered an 18-year prison sentence.