Execution set for only woman on Va. death row; would be 1st woman put to death in US since ‘05

1st US execution of woman since 2005 set for Sept.

RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia woman who plotted to have her husband and stepson killed is scheduled to die in September and would be the first woman put to death in the U.S. since 2005.

A judge on Thursday set a Sept. 23 execution date for 41-year-old Teresa Lewis, the only woman on Virginia’s death row. Lewis plotted the killings in 2002 so she could collect a $250,000 life insurance policy.

Prosecutors said Lewis used sexual favors and manipulation to persuade two gunmen to commit the killings. They were sentenced to life in prison, and one committed suicide in 2006.

Lewis would be the first woman executed in Virginia in nearly 100 years and the first in the U.S. since Frances Newton died by injection in Texas. Newton shot her husband and two children to death.

(This version CORRECTS Lewis’ age to 41)