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Sept. execution set for Va. death row’s only woman

Lewis would be the first woman executed in Virginia in nearly 100 years and the first in the U.S. since 2005

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Teresa Lewis was sentenced to death for plotting to have her husband and stepson killed in 2002 so she could collect a $250,000 life insurance policy. Lewis would be the first woman executed in Virginia in nearly 100 years. (AP Photo/Virginia Department of Corrections)

The Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. — A September execution date has been set for the only woman on Virginia’s death row, who would be the first woman put to death in the United States since 2005.

A county judge set the Sept. 23 date Thursday for 40-year-old Teresa Lewis. Lewis was sentenced to death for plotting to have her husband and stepson killed in 2002 so she could collect a $250,000 life insurance policy.

Prosecutors said Lewis used sexual favors and manipulation to persuade two men to kill her husband, Julian Clifton Lewis Jr., and stepson Charles J. Lewis.

The gunmen were sentenced to life in prison. 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 2005, when Frances Newton died by injection in Texas.