Suzanne Basso
Suzanne Basso is expected to be just the 14th woman executed in the United States since 1976. Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Update, 7:40 p.m. ET: Suzanne Basso was executed Wednesday evening; she was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m. CST.

Original article:

The execution of Texas death row inmate Suzanne Basso is scheduled to go forward Wednesday. On Monday, Basso's appeal for a halt in the execution was rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and a federal judge.

Basso, 59, is expected to become just the 14th woman to be executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated through a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1976. She was sentenced to death for torturing and killing Louis “Buddy” Musso, a 59-year-old mentally ill man, in 1998.

Her lawyer, Winston Cochran, tried to get the execution halted by claiming that Basso is not mentally competent to be executed. The attorney alleged Basso suffers from delusions.

But both federal and state judges disagreed, and instead sided with a testimony from a psychiatrist who found Basso was manipulative and fabricated stories to get sympathy.

Cochran told Reuters that he filed for a stay of execution with the U.S. Supreme Court, but it’s unclear whether the case will be heard.

"She is delusional. She has been diagnosed with at least six different disorders over time," Cochran said.

Basso is expected to be executed via lethal injection around 6 p.m. Wednesday local time at the death chamber in Huntsville, Texas, according to Reuters.

She allegedly befriended Musso, who had been living in New Jersey, and lured him to Texas by offering to marry him, NBC News reported. Before Musso was murdered, Basso listed herself as the beneficiary on his insurance policies and took over his Social Security benefits.

Musso’s body was found in a ditch near Houston. His body showed evidence of torture and a medical examiner found that he suffered broken bones and his back was covered with cigarette burns.

The body was in such bad shape that Musso was unrecognizable. He had been beaten with baseball bats, belts and steel-toed boots. Four other people participated in the beating along with Basso.