Teresa Lewis Days from Execution; First Woman Facing that Fate in Va. in Nearly a Century
RICHMOND, Va. (CBS/AP) Teresa Lewis is one step closer to the death chamber after Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell denied her appeal, and she says she doesn't want to die but she will find comfort in her Christian faith if it comes to pass.
McDonnell announced Friday that he had decided not to issue a stay of Lewis' execution, saying that he found "no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was imposed by the Circuit Court." He also noted that no medical professional has concluded that she is mentally retarded under Virginia law, as many of her supporters have claimed.
The 41-year-old Virginia woman, who pleaded guilty in 2003 to two counts of murder for hire, is scheduled to die by injection at 9 p.m. Thursday at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes. She would be the first woman executed in Virginia in nearly a century and the first in the U.S. in five years.
Supporters of Lewis have argued that she is mentally challenged and was influenced by her much smarter lover, Matthew Shallenberger, in plotting the October, 2002 murder of her husband, Julian, and stepson, Charles, in order to claim the insurance money.
But Lewis' critics say that the prosecution had ample evidence that she was the "mastermind" behind the plot, offering the promise of money to persuade two young men to do the killing, taking her teenage daughter to have sex with one of them, rifling through her dying husband's pockets for his last dollar, and then waiting until she thought he was dead before calling for help.
At the time the judge reportedly said he felt she was the "head of this serpent," and sentenced her to death.
Shallenberger and the other conspirator, Rodney Fuller, both got life sentences, despite having pulled the trigger, after accepting plea deals, and many of Lewis' supporters have said it's not fair that she should be put to death while the actual killers got life.
"Our world is not going to be any safer if Teresa is executed," said Rev. Lynn Litchfield who has ministered to Lewis since the day she came to prison. "Nothing is going to be any better for the victims and their families."
But Kathy Clifton, the daughter and sister of the two victims, says that although she has forgiven Lewis she believes she should have to pay for her crimes.
"These people who say that Teresa's life should be spared because she's found faith in prison after all this, it's kind of like saying just because you did something and said you're sorry that you shouldn't be punished," she said.
Clifton plans to attend the execution.
MORE ON CRIMESIDER
August 2, 2010 - Teresa Lewis Scheduled to be First U.S. Woman Executed Since 2005
March 23, 2010 - Teresa Lewis Pleads for Her Life: Only Female on Va. Death Row Says She Wasn't Mastermind