U.S. Supreme Court upholds Virginia woman's execution

[Al-khiyal]

U.S. Supreme Court upholds Virginia woman's planned execution

September 22, 2010 -- The US Supreme Court has refused to block the state of Virginia's first execution of a woman in nearly a century, clearing the way for Teresa Lewis's death by lethal injection tomorrow. Lewis, 41, was convicted of arranging the deaths of her husband and stepson in October 2002 so she could collect a $250,000 (£159,365) insurance payout. The two men who carried out the murders – one of whom was her lover – received life sentences. Lewis's lawyers had argued her execution would be unconstitutional because she has a low IQ. Last night two of the three women on the nine-member court, justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, voted to stop the execution but the court made no other comment on its order. Prosecutors said Lewis deserved the death penalty because she planned the killings in cold blood. Robert McDonnell, the Virginia governor, had refused to stop the execution because, he said, no medical professional had concluded that she was mentally retarded. Lewis's lawyers said they had new evidence that her lover Matthew Shallenberger, who later committed suicide in prison, had manipulated her. On the decisions made by the supreme court and McDonnell, Lewis's lawyer, James E Rocap said that "a good and decent person is about to lose her life because of a system that is broken".

Authorities in Iran have accused the U.S. and western media of double standards over the case. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in state-run media that the west had run a "heavy propaganda" campaign against the case of an Iranian woman who had been sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery but failed to react with outrage over the scheduled execution of Lewis.

The last woman to be executed in Virginia was 17-year-old Virginia Christian in 1912 for the murder of her employer after she was accused of stealing a gold locket. There are 53 women on death row in the U.S. They include Linda Carty, from the Caribbean island of St Kitts, who holds a British passport but has spent most of her adult life in the U.S. Carty was convicted in Texas, along with three co-defendants, for the abduction and murder of a 25-year-old woman and her three-day-old baby.

[Al-khiyal]

[Al-khiyal]

Teresa Lewis given lethal injection despite protests over low IQ

September 24, 2010 -- Teresa 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 U.S. 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.

The Virigina correctional services said she had asked for her last meal to consist of fried chicken breasts, a dessert and a Dr Pepper. In her last hours, she saw her spiritual adviser and family. Pleas for clemency were rejected by the governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, who said there was no "compelling reason". An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was also turned down. The last execution of a woman in the U.S. 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.