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Woman's Execution Delayed By Rare Winter Storm

The execution of a female inmate has been delayed due to a rare winter storm set to pummel the US Deep South.

Kelly Renee Gissendaner was scheduled to be put to death in Georgia at 7pm on Wednesday.

But a mixture of heavy snow and freezing rain has brought several southern states to a grinding halt and forced officials to postpone the execution until Monday.

Schools in more than a half-dozen states from Texas to North Carolina have cancelled or delayed classes.

Forecasters warned of dangerous road conditions as the large storm swept eastward across the South.

Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said the decision to delay Gissendaner's death sentence due to weather was a first for the state.

Gissendaner is Georgia's only female death row inmate, and would be the first woman executed in the state in about 70 years.

The 46-year-old was convicted in 1998 of murdering her husband.

Prosecutors said she plotted his death with her boyfriend, Gregory Owen, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

Earlier on Wednesday, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Gissendaner's request for clemency.

In Georgia, only the parole board has the authority to commute a death sentence.