Tennessee Is Set to Execute a Woman for theFirst Time Since Death Penalty Records Began

Tennessee’s Supreme Court has set a date to execute a woman for the first time since death-penalty records began in 1916.

The court set Gaile Owens’ execution for September 28 in Nashville. That’s after a protracted legal battle, where defense lawyers argued her original trial failed to consider her as a battered spouse. And they say her death sentence is too much compared to similar cases, but the state supreme court rejected those arguments.

Owens was convicted in Shelby County in 1986 of hiring Sidney Porterfield to kill her husband. Porterfield is also on death row.