Woman executed in Arkansas

Riggs attempted suicide after smothering Justin and Shelby

The US state of Arkansas has carried out its first execution of a woman in 150 years.

Christina Riggs, a 28-year-old former nurse, was killed by lethal injection in an Arkansas prison at 9:28 pm on Tuesday (0228 GMT Wednesday), after being convicted of killing her two children.

During her trial, Riggs had asked the jury to sentence her to death, and made no appeal against the death penalty.

She becomes the fifth woman to be executed in the US since the Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1976.

Murders and attempted suicide

Riggs was killed by potassium chloride, the same heart-stopping drug with which she had attempted to murder her children in November 1997.

Riggs asked the jury for the death penalty

The drug did not kill the children and Riggs resorted to smothering her five-year-son and two-year-old daughter.

She then took anti-depressant pills herself in an attempt to commit suicide.

She claimed that she was deeply depressed, had wanted to kill herself and did not want her children to live with the consequences of their mother's suicide.