U.S. Supreme Court rejects the appeal of a woman on Virginia's death row

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to halt the execution of a Virginia woman who planned the murders of her husband and stepson, meaning that the state is almost certain to execute its first woman in nearly a century.

Teresa Lewis, 41, admitted that she plotted the 2002 killings of her husband, Julian Lewis, and his son, Charles "C.J." Lewis, to collect insurance money. Lewis is scheduled to die by injection Thursday night.

In a two-paragraph order, the high court said Lewis's application to stay her death sentence was denied.

In recent days, Lewis's supporters have argued that she does not deserve to die because she is borderline mentally retarded, with the intellectual ability of about a 13-year-old, and had been used by a much smarter conspirator. It is unfair, they said, that she was condemned to death while the two men who fired the shots received life terms.

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Source: The Washington Post, September 22, 2010

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