US Supreme Court refuses to halt execution of a woman in Virginia

Two of three women in the nine-judge court had voted to halt the execution.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor had voted against but there was no other comment from the court.

Tomorrow Teresa Lewis, 41, was set to become the first woman to be executed in the United States (US) for five years and in Virginia since 1912.

Lewis, who was said to have learning difficulties, left a door unlocked at the family home so gunmen could enter.

The two gunmen who had carried out the 2002 killings had received life sentences.

Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell had said he would not commute the death penalty, despite claims about Lewis's learning difficulties.

Lawyers for Lewis, due to die by lethal injection, had filed a petition for executive clemency on 25 August 2010.

Declining to commute the sentence, McDonnell said: "Lewis does not deny that she committed these heinous crimes.

"Numerous psychiatrists and psychologists have analysed Lewis, both before and after her sentencing,” he insisted.

"After numerous evaluations, no medical professional has concluded that Teresa Lewis meets the medical or statutory definition of mentally retarded,” the Governor had added.

Lewis's husband, Julian Lewis, 51, and stepson, Charles Lewis, 25, were killed with shotgun blasts by Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller at their home in Danville, Virginia.