Teresa Lewis, convicted of plotting to kill her husband and stepson, dies at Greensville Correctional Centre in Virginia
Teresa Lewis, a 41-year-old who was judged to have an IQ of 72, was the first woman to be executed in Virginia since 1912. Photograph: Ho/AFP/Getty ImagesTeresa Lewis died early today after being given a lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Centre, the first woman to be executed in Virginia in almost a century.
The execution went ahead in spite of protests from lawyers, celebrities and others who argued that she should have been given clemency because of her low IQ. Under US law, anyone with an IQ of 70 avoids the death penalty. Lewis was judged to have an IQ of 72.
The 41-year-old was convicted of plotting to kill her husband, Julian Lewis, and her stepson, Charles Lewis. She persuaded two men to carry out the murders in return for sex and money. The two men received life sentences.
She spent her final day with her family. Virigina correctional services said she had asked for her last meal to consist of fried chicken breasts, a dessert and a Dr Pepper.
During her last few minutes she prayed and held hands with her chaplain and with her lawyer, Jim Rocap.
She walked the ten steps from her cell to the execution chamber where she was strapped down. Witnesses said she looked terrified.
Kathy Clifton, Lewis's stepdaughter, was in an adjoining witness room blocked from view by a two-way mirror.
A curtain closed while tubes were attached and then briefly reopened. She
said: "I want Kathy to know I love you and I am very sorry."
Pleas for clemency were rejected by the governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, who said there was no "compelling reason". An appeal to the US Supreme Court was also turned down.
The last execution of a woman in the US was in 2005 when Frances Newton was injected in Texas. The last woman to be executed in Virginia was Virginia Christian in 1912, for suffocating her employer.
Lewis's motive was primarily money. She intended to pick up $250,000 (£160,000) in insurance from a policy Charles Lewis had taken out and which passed to his father on his death.
She recruited Matthew Shallenberger, with whom she had an affair, and Rodney Fuller, to carry out the murder. In 2002, she went to bed with her husband but got up to unlock the door and lock their pit bull terrier in another room. Shallenberger and Fuller then shot her husband and stepson.
Lewis waited 45 minutes before calling the police, but her husband was still alive and told the police she knew those responsible. She confessed a few days later.
About 6,000 people signed a petition calling for clemency, in part because of her claim to have found God and in part because of the apparent injustice of her receiving the death penalty while the two men received life.
The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, referred to the case earlier this week on a visit to New York, saying the west had double standards – criticising Iran for sentencing a woman to be stoned but failing to show the same outrage in the Lewis case.
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Teresa Lewis: victim of vengeance
I've reported many executions – but the more I see, the less it makes sense. Now this unreason has claimed number 1,227
The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, referred to the case earlier this week on a visit to New York, saying the west had double standards – criticising Iran for sentencing a woman to be stoned but failing to show the same outrage in the Lewis case.
ReplyDeleteWhat a moron.