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Virginia is due to execute a woman, the first in the US state since 1912 and the first anywhere in the country for five years. But why is the execution of a woman such a significant event?
Teresa Lewis's planned execution has been publicised everywhere from the UK to Iran. Her case is unusual for three reasons. Lewis plotted with two men to kill her husband and stepson, leaving the door of the house open and buying guns and ammunition for the killers.
She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death. The gunmen Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller only received life sentences.
With an IQ of just 72, both her current legal team and death penalty opponents have suggested it is wrong to execute her and wrong to think she is likely to have been the driving force behind a plot.
Her legal team accuses Shallenberger, who killed himself in prison, of being the mastermind and of manipulating Lewis, with whom he had an affair.
But there is no doubt that what interests many people most about the case is the mere fact of Lewis being a woman.
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