Va. Executes State's First Female Inmate in Nearly 100 Years
A woman convicted of conspiring to have two men kill her husband and stepson died by lethal injection Thursday night even though thousands appealed for her life to be spared.
Teresa Lewis's death at 9:13 p.m. Thursday marked the first execution of a woman in the United States since 2005 and the first in Virginia in nearly a century.
"She was very peaceful" before she entered the death chamber, said her attorney, James Rocap III.
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Moments before her execution, Lewis asked if her husband's daughter - her stepdaughter - was near.
"I want Kathy to know that I love her and I'm very sorry," Lewis said, referring to Kathy Clifton, who was in an adjacent witness room.
More than 7,300 appeals to stop the execution had been made to Virginia's governor but they failed to convince him to reconsider clemency for 41-year-old Lewis, who supporters point out has an IQ of 72 - two points above the threshold for clinical mental retardation.
In a statement, Gov. Bob McDonnell noted that no medical professional has concluded that Lewis is mentally retarded under Virginia law and he found "no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was imposed by the Circuit Court."
"Accordingly, I decline to intervene and have notified the appropriate counsel and family of my decision," he concluded.
Prosecutors and police have said that although Lewis did not fire the gun that killed her husband, Julian Lewis, and his son, Charles "C.J." Lewis, she was the mastermind behind the plot to obtain her husband's assets, including the life insurance proceeds from another son's accidental death, and her stepson's life insurance policy.
Lewis reportedly gave her conspirators $1,200 to purchase firearms and ammunition, enticed her 16 year-old daughter to become involved in the murder plans, and intentionally left a door unlocked on the night of Oct. 30, 2002, so the gunmen could slip in.
She also moved the couple's pit bull in a bedroom so it wouldn't interfere and after the shootings waited more than 45 minutes to call 911, while her husband slowly bled to death.
"Lewis does not deny that she committed these heinous crimes," McDonnell pointed out.
Lewis's supporters, however, insist that she wasn't the mastermind of the murder plot but was rather manipulated into the crime.
Furthermore, while she was one of the three persons involved in the criminal plot, Lewis was the only one who received a capital sentence. Her co-conspirators struck deals for and were granted life sentences, though one committed suicide in 2006.
"I believe we should hold people accountable for their behavior and I believe that Teresa is accountable and did participate in this crime. And as such, I believe think she needs to stay in prison," said the Rev. Lynn Litchfield, former chaplain at Virginia's Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, to the Washington Post.
"But I don't think that she deserves to die for what she did," added Litchfield.
Notably, Lewis's case drew international attention and sparked remarks from the European Union, which asked the governor to commute her sentence to life, and even Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whoe accused Western media of having a double standard in reporting on the Lewis's execution.
In remarks made earlier this week, Ahmadinejad compared coverage of the Lewis case to the "heavy propaganda" campaign against the case of an Iranian woman who had been sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery.
"Meanwhile, nobody objects to the case of an American woman who is going to be executed," he was quoted as saying during a speech Monday to Islamic clerics and other figures in New York.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, more than 1,200 people have been put to death. Only 12 have been women – Lewis being the 12th.
"Tonight the death machine exterminated the beautiful childlike and loving spirit of Teresa Lewis," said Lewis's lawyer.
In recent years, Lewis had reportedly become a devout Christian and spent much of her time praying for her fellow inmates at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women and for the families she helped hurt.
Prior to her time in prison, Lewis said she went to church every week but only opened her Bible while there. Meanwhile, Lewis admitted, she was "doing drugs, stealing, lying and having several affairs during my marriages."
Since then, supporters say, Lewis had become a changed woman. Former prison chaplains and inmates have testified of the comfort and inspiration Lewis brought to other inmates with her faith and the hymns and country gospel tunes she sang at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women where she was long held.
In a telephone interview with WTVR in Richmond, Lewis said prior to her execution that she was hoping that something would turn around, but said "if I have to go home with Jesus ... I know that's going to be the best thing."
She also said she wanted people to know "that you can be a good person and make the wrong choice."
"I want people to know that," she reiterated.
Lewis was executed at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.
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