The United States Supreme Court has refused to block the execution of a woman from the state of Virginia, clearing the way for her to be put to death.
On Thursday, Teresa Lewis, 41, will become the first woman to be executed in the US for five years, and since 1912 in Virginia.
The BBC reports she will be given a lethal injection for hiring two men to murder her husband and stepson in 2002.
Lewis left a door unlocked at the family home so the gunmen could enter. They received life sentences.
Two of three women in the nine-judge court voted to halt the execution. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor voted against.
Lawyers for Lewis filed a petition for executive clemency on 25 August 2010.
Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell has declined to commute the sentence.
