Supreme Court Refuses to Block Woman's Execution

A woman convicted of two hired killings is scheduled to die by injection tomorrow and become the first woman put to death in the commonwealth of Virginia in nearly a century, after the US Supreme Court refused to block her execution. Two of the three women on the court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, were the only justices to vote to stop the execution. The court did not otherwise comment on its order.

Teresa Lewis, 41, was sentenced to death for providing sex and money to two men to kill her husband and stepson in October 2002 so she could collect on a $250,000 insurance payout. But Lewis is borderline mentally retarded, and one of the gunmen later claimed he duped her "into believing he loved her so that he could achieve his own selfish goals," Lewis' attorney argued Monday.

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