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In Virginia, Teresa Lewis Is On The Verge of Execution/Teresa Lewis executed Thur., 09/24/10

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In Virginia, Teresa Lewis Is On The Verge of Execution/Teresa Lewis executed Thur., 09/24/10 Empty In Virginia, Teresa Lewis Is On The Verge of Execution/Teresa Lewis executed Thur., 09/24/10

Post by NiteSpinR Tue Sep 14, 2010 3:46 am

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In Virginia, Teresa Lewis Is On The Verge of Execution/Teresa Lewis executed Thur., 09/24/10 Virgin11
After midnight on Oct. 30, 2002, two men crept into an unlocked trailer in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. A family of three was sleeping. Toting shotguns, the intruders roused Teresa Lewis, now 40, and told her to leave the bedroom she shared with her husband Julian. One of the men shot Julian several times. The other intruder stalked down the hall and put five bullets into Julian's son, C.J., a U.S. Army reservist. The intruders divvied up the cash in Julian's wallet and fled the trailer. About 45 minutes later, Teresa Lewis called the police to report that her husband and stepson had been killed. But when the police arrived, Julian Lewis was still alive. Among his last words was an ominous accusation: "My wife knows who done this to me."

She did. As detailed in court documents, Teresa Lewis had paid the shooters — Matthew Shallenberger, 22, and Rodney Fuller, 19 — to kill her husband and stepson. Some murders are spurred by sex and others by money; in this one it was both. After meeting the pair at a local Walmart, Lewis started an affair with Shallenberger. In return for killing Julian and C.J. Lewis, Teresa promised to split her stepson's $250,000 life-insurance policy with the two men, and she fronted $1,200 in cash to buy the guns and ammunition with which her family would be executed. In May 2003, after waiving her right to a trial, Lewis pleaded guilty to seven offenses, including two counts of murder for hire. A judge, deeming Lewis the crime's mastermind — "the head of this serpent," as he put it — sentenced her to death by lethal injection. The triggermen, who also pleaded guilty, were given life sentences.

Barring the U.S. Supreme Court's intervention or a decision by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to grant clemency, on Sept. 23 Lewis will become the first woman executed by the commonwealth in 98 years, and just the 12th overall since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1976. No one disputes her guilt, or the heinousness of her crime. Whether she should be put to death for it is a murkier matter.

Lewis' lawyers have offered several reasons for why her sentence should be lightened, including tests that show Lewis is on the cusp of mental retardation. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that executing mentally retarded prisoners violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. But Virginia does not consider prisoners mentally handicapped unless they score significantly below the mean on an IQ test and struggle to function in society. Lewis — who scored as low as 70 — hasn't qualified in the eyes of appeals courts. In addition to her poor cognitive abilities, says Lewis' current lawyer Jim Rocap, she was addled by an addiction to prescription painkillers at the time of the killings, a condition that Rocap says contributed to her apparent lack of remorse. (According to the court documents, she began inquiring about redeeming her husband's paycheck and stepson's life-insurance policy, for example, just hours after the murders.)

Some medical experts also determined that Lewis suffered from a dependent-personality disorder, which left her particularly susceptible to manipulation by men. Rocap, who has represented Lewis since 2004, argues that Lewis was exploited by Shallenberger, who tested as considerably more intelligent and penned a 2003 letter to an associate stating that he had struck up an affair with Lewis to "get her to 'fall in love' with me so she would give me the insurance money." (Shallenberger committed suicide in 2006.) "Nobody who has personal knowledge of their relationship disputes that he was the leader, the person controlling Teresa," Rocap says. But Lewis' trial lawyers declined to address this point during the sentencing phase of the case, and appellate law limits the type of evidence that can be introduced during habeas hearings.

In deciding whether to grant clemency, Governor McDonnell can consider a range of mitigating circumstances, including the Shallenberger letter and Lewis' behavior during the seven years she has lived in an isolated, 6-by-8-ft. cell at a Fluvanna County correctional facility. During her imprisonment, Lewis' faith has deepened. She ministers to other prisoners and has "provided some measure of peace" to troubled inmates, says the Rev. Lynn Litchfield, Lewis' prison chaplain until April 2009. "I really believe Teresa can be a positive influence inside," Litchfield says. Governor McDonnell will issue a clemency ruling by Sept. 18, in keeping with his policy of ruling on clemency petitions at least five days before the date of a scheduled execution, says his spokesman, Tucker Martin.

Rocap describes his client as anxious and apprehensive as the days tick away. "She wants to live. She's not resigned to dying," he says. "She thinks she has a lot to offer and she wants to do anything she can to make people realize she's much more than the person that was depicted on the worst day of her life." In testimony written by Lewis and read by a fellow inmate at services held in late August, the condemned was remorseful. "I've done so many things wrong. I took two people's lives that I loved very much and I hurt so many more that I loved as well!" she writes, later adding, "I don't want to die this way, or actually die at all! ... I will fight to the end, and in the end, no matter what, I'm gonna win either way."




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In Virginia, Teresa Lewis Is On The Verge of Execution/Teresa Lewis executed Thur., 09/24/10 Empty Re: In Virginia, Teresa Lewis Is On The Verge of Execution/Teresa Lewis executed Thur., 09/24/10

Post by Guest Tue Sep 14, 2010 1:30 pm

I say let her live the rest of her life in prison if that is what she wants. I would rather die but that is just me.
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In Virginia, Teresa Lewis Is On The Verge of Execution/Teresa Lewis executed Thur., 09/24/10 Empty Virginia Governor Declines Stay of Execution

Post by NiteSpinR Sat Sep 18, 2010 2:25 am

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September 17, 2010 10:13 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Virginia's governor has rejected a clemency request from a death row inmate scheduled to be the first woman executed in the United States in five years.

Teresa Lewis, a 41-year-old grandmother, is now set to die by lethal injection Thursday evening. She pleaded guilty to her part in the 2002 slayings of her husband and son-in-law in their rural home near Danville, about 145 miles from Richmond, Virginia. Two male co-conspirators -- the triggermen -- were given life in prison without parole.

"I'm a little nervous this morning. I'm also scared. But I am peaceful because I've got Jesus with me," Lewis told CNN in an exclusive interview by phone Friday, just hours before Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell made his decision. "But I'm good."

McDonnell refused to issue a stay for Lewis, who is the first woman scheduled to be executed in Virginia in nearly a century.

"Having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency, the judicial opinions in this case, and other relevant materials, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was imposed by the Circuit Court and affirmed by all reviewing courts," the governor wrote. "Accordingly, I decline to intervene and have notified the appropriate counsel and family of my decision."

Lewis and her lawyers had formally asked the governor to spare her life, arguing she has an IQ that is borderline mentally retarded and that she was manipulated to commit the crimes by a dominant male co-defendant. She had pleaded guilty to her participation in the murders, but now regrets her actions.

"I just want the governor to know that I am so sorry, deeply from my heart," she told CNN. "And if I could take it back, I would, in a minute... I just wish I could take it back. And I'm sorry for all the people that I've hurt in the process."

Lewis's attorney, Jim Rocap, said he would take his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lewis had admitted to police she concocted the plot to kill her husband, Julian Lewis, and his son, C.J. Lewis, an Army reservist set to be deployed to Iraq. At the time, she was having an affair with Matthew Shallenberger and paid him and then-19-year-old Rodney Fuller to commit murder for the victims' insurance money. Court records show Lewis gave the two killers cash to buy weapons and left the door of the rural home open for easy entry.

Teresa was in bed with her husband when he was blasted with a shotgun by Shallenberger. Julian Lewis survived long enough to tell police: "My wife knows who did this to me." C.J. Lewis was killed by Fuller in his bedroom down the hall.

Despite her guilty plea, a state judge later sentenced Lewis to death while sparing the lives of triggermen Shallenberger and Fuller. The judge at sentencing called her "the head of this serpent."

The state argued Lewis was the mastermind of the murders-for-hire, and officials say she does not deserve mercy.

"I can frankly say that Teresa Lewis is as evil a person as I've ever met," said David Grimes, Commonwealth's Attorney for Pittsylvania County, who was at the scene of the crimes shortly after they occurred. "I would wager with some assurance that you wouldn't find anyone who knew her before this event occurred who thought she was mentally retarded, or had a limited mentality -- that it would ever cross their minds."

Her supporters say Lewis is deeply remorseful and has been a model prisoner, helping fellow female inmates cope with their circumstances.

"I do feel I could be a lot of help to some of the women -- which I have already. From my understanding I've already helped a lot, to change their lives, or made them look at their lives in a different way," she told CNN.

Amnesty International and best-selling author John Grisham are among those supporting leniency.

Grimes said Lewis has a "fairly low" IQ but noted courts have concluded she is not mentally retarded. The state also argued Lewis waited 45 minutes after the shootings before calling police and that she had involved her then-16-year-old daughter in the plot.

Rocap argued that such evidence suggested "Teresa could not have been the mastermind."

"Shallenberger has stated, and the experts that have examined her agree, that she was being used by Shallenberger, not the other way around," he said.

Lewis' attorneys say that Shallenberger admitted he used Lewis to get at the $250,000 she would receive in the event her stepson died. A letter from Shallenberger to another woman, they say, said that the only reason he slept with Lewis was "so she would give me the insurance money."

"She was exactly what I was looking for," he wrote. "Some ugly bitch who married her husband for the money and I knew I could get to fall head over heels for me."

Furthermore, they said, Shallenberger said he "manipulated the whole thing" and "knew he was going 'take' Lewis from the moment he met her," according to an affidavit from one of their investigators.

But Shallenberger, who committed suicide in 2006, refused to sign the affidavit and actually tore up and ate part of it.

Still, Grimes said, his investigation showed that Lewis took an active role in the plot, that she connived and manipulated everyone from her late husband to her lover to her children. From early on, he said, Lewis schemed several different ways to get the inheritance money. She helped plan an earlier plot to kill her husband that failed.

Kathy Lewis Clifton, daughter and sister of the victims, told CNN that Lewis "liked to play people off each other."

"That's one of the reasons I did not like her. She was always the manipulator, not the manipulatee," Clifton said. "She wrote her own ticket. She wrote her own future. I didn't have any sympathy for her, but I forgive her."

Clifton said she often argued with her father over her stepmother. Her father told her, the day before the murders, she said, that he was planning to divorce her.

"The last month he realized something was up. I think he had come to the realization she was cheating on him," Clifton said.

Lewis is one of only 61 women currently on death row in the United States, the Death Penalty Information Center said -- about 1.8 percent of capital inmates. Forty women have been executed in the last 100 years, but only 12 since 1976 when the Supreme Court resumed capital punishment. The last such execution was in September 2005 in Texas.

"When a woman comes up for execution, there is a curiosity, and as people start to learn about her family and background. They often ask why would she do such a thing," said Richard Dieter, director of DPIC, a group that opposes capital punishment but provides facts and figures on the procedure.

"As you get to know an individual and her circumstances, it's much harder for the jury, the governor. They begin to understand there are mitigating factors. So for those unique reasons, women are rarely executed even though they commit some of the murders in this country," he said.

On Friday, as she waited in the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Troy, Virginia, Lewis admitted to being nervous and having "little jitterbugs." Asked what she'd say to McDonnell if she could speak with him, she said she would tell him "how sorry I am for allowing this to happen to two people that I love very much."

"I'm hoping and I'm praying that the governor will spare my life," she said.

He didn't, but Lewis didn't know that Friday morning. As the interview ended, she began to sing in a voice her friends say has been a calming influence on other inmates in the prison's segregation unit.

"My dear lord, I have a need in my heart today. I need a miracle. I have no other friend to count on, so Lord hear me wandering. I need a miracle."

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Post by artgal16 Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:23 am

I have never heard of a person pleading guilty in a death penalty case, waiving the right to trial and being
sentenced to death! Who the heck was her lawyer?
Sorry but that isnt correct, life without parole is what she should have received and she should have been granted the clemency which has been denied her.
I am for the death penalty in some cases, and this was a terrible crime, but she didnt have a trial that should have been tantamount to a plea and I think life without parole would have been more appropriate.
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In Virginia, Teresa Lewis Is On The Verge of Execution/Teresa Lewis executed Thur., 09/24/10 Empty Re: In Virginia, Teresa Lewis Is On The Verge of Execution/Teresa Lewis executed Thur., 09/24/10

Post by Wrapitup Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:04 pm

I agree with you, Artgal. No trial? She did a despicable crime and involved lots of others. I wish that lover of hers was still alive to testify. If she has a low IQ, he probably did have quite an influence over her. I am not saying she should not pay for her crime, but if she has been a model prisoner and is helping others, had no trial and plead guilty..I say give her life in prison w/no possibility of parole. JMO.
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In Virginia, Teresa Lewis Is On The Verge of Execution/Teresa Lewis executed Thur., 09/24/10 Empty 1st woman in 5 years, Teresa Lewis, executed in US despite outcry

Post by Wrapitup Fri Sep 24, 2010 1:01 am

By STEVE SZKOTAK, Associated Press Writer Steve Szkotak, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 1 min ago

JARRATT, Va. – The first woman executed in the United States in five years was put to death in Virginia on Thursday for arranging the killings of her husband and a stepson over a $250,000 insurance payment.

Teresa Lewis, 41, died by injection at 9:13 p.m. Thursday, authorities said. She became the first woman executed in Virginia in nearly a century. Supporters and relatives of the victims watched her execution at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.

Lewis enticed two men through sex, cash and a promised cut in an insurance policy to shoot her husband, Julian Clifton Lewis Jr., and his son, Charles, as they slept in October 2002. Both triggermen were sentenced to life in prison and one committed suicide in 2006.

Lewis appeared fearful, her jaw clenched, as she was escorted into the death chamber. She glanced tensely around at 14 assembled corrections officials before being bound to a gurney with heavy leather straps.

Moments before her execution, Lewis asked if her husband's daughter was near.

Kathy Clifton, Lewis' stepdaughter, was in an adjacent witness room blocked from the inmate's view by a two-way mirror.

"I want Kathy to know that I love her and I'm very sorry," Lewis said.

Then, as the drugs flowed into her body, her feet bobbed but she otherwise remained motionless. A guard lightly tapped her on the shoulder reassuringly as she slipped into death.

More than 7,300 appeals to stop the execution — the first of a woman in Virginia since 1912 — had been made to the governor in a state second only to Texas in the number of people it executes.

Texas held the most recent U.S. execution of a woman in 2005. Out of more than 1,200 people put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, only 11 have been women.

The 41-year-old woman, who defense attorneys said was borderline mentally disabled, had inspired other inmates by singing Christian hymns in prison. Her fate also had drawn appeals from the European Union, an indignant rebuke from Iran and the disgust of thousands of people.

The Lewis execution stirred an unusual amount of attention because of her gender, claims she lacked the intelligence to mastermind the killings and the post-conviction emergence of defense evidence that one of the triggermen manipulated her.

Lewis' supporters also said she was a changed woman. They pointed to testimonials from former prison chaplains and inmates that Lewis comforted and inspired 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.

Hours before her execution, Lewis met with family, her spiritual adviser and supporters at the Greensville Correctional Center.

Her spiritual adviser, the Rev. Julie Perry, stood sobbing as she later witnessed the execution, clutching a religious book.

Throughout her life, a faith in God had been a seeming constant for Lewis — whether it was the prayer with her husband or her ministry behind bars.

But by her own admission, Lewis' life has been marked by outrageous bouts of sex and betrayal even as she hewed to the trappings of Christianity.

"I was doing drugs, stealing, lying and having several affairs during my marriages," Lewis wrote in a statement that was read at a prison religious service in August. "I went to church every Sunday, Friday and revivals but guess what? I didn't open my Bible at home, only when I was at church."

Her father said she ran off to get married, then later abandoned her children and ran off with her sister's husband. Then she had an affair with her sister's fiance while at the same time having an affair with another man.

Lewis' life took a deadly turn after she married Julian, whom she met at a Danville textile factory in 2000. Two years later, his son Charles entered the U.S. Army Reserve. When he was called for active duty he obtained a $250,000 life insurance policy, naming his father the beneficiary and providing temptation for Teresa Lewis.

Both men would have to die for Lewis to receive the insurance payout.

She met at a Walmart with the two men who ultimately killed Julian Lewis and his son. Lewis began an affair with Matthew Shallenberger and later had sex with the other triggerman, Rodney Fuller. She also arranged sex with Fuller and her daughter, who was 16, in a parking lot.

On the night before Halloween in 2002, after she prayed with her husband, Lewis got out of bed, unlocked the door to their mobile home and put the couple's pit bull in a bedroom so the animal wouldn't interfere. Shallenberger and Fuller came in and shot both men several times with the shotguns Lewis had bought for them.

On a grassy knoll beside the correctional center, those opposed to the execution protested with signs and banners in the twilight Thursday. Critics said they were repulsed by Virginia's killing of a woman.

"Tonight the death machine exterminated the beautiful childlike and loving spirit of Teresa Lewis," said the condemned woman's lawyer, James Rocap.

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