Va. to execute first woman in nearly a century
September 23rd, 2010 . by TexasFredVa. to execute first woman in nearly a century
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia was moving forward Thursday with its first execution of a woman in nearly a century amid appeals from the European Union and repercussions that reached as far away as Iran.
Teresa Lewis, 41, was scheduled to die by injection at 9 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt for the October 2002 hired killings of her husband and stepson. To procure the hit men, prosecutors said, she used sex, cash and a promised cut of the insurance benefits the killings would reap her.
The U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Bob McDonnell declined to intervene. All her legal appeals have been exhausted, her attorney said.
In a state with the second busiest death chamber in the U.S., the Lewis execution has 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.
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Va. to execute first woman in nearly a century
Lewis used sex, cash and a promised cut of the insurance benefits? She met the guys that committed the murders at her friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart? That just goes to show you, you really can get everything you need at Wal-Mart. Money, sex, a hit man or 2…those Wal-Mart folks think of everything.
I wonder? Was there a price rollback? 
Lewis’ supporters say she’s a changed woman, and point 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.
Well, there ya go! If you can comfort and inspire folks with your faith, and have a reasonably good singing voice, you too can appeal to the state to stay your execution. And again I wonder? Do you suppose her faith and singing inspire her husband and step-son?
In a letter this month to McDonnell, the European Union asked the governor to commute her sentence to life, citing Lewis’ mental capacity. Her lawyers have said testing shows Lewis is borderline mentally retarded.
The European Union’s ambassador to the U.S. wrote that the EU “considers that the execution of people with mental disorders of all types is contrary to minimum standards of human rights …”
OK Pierre, here’s the scoop, we don’t care what France and the EU think, this is still America, at least for now, and you guys need to mind your own business.
Teresa Lewis is borderline mentally retarded?
There is a very thin line between genius and insanity, and at times it is very difficult to distinguish between them. I know Sarah Palin won’t appreciate the AP using the word retarded, but that’s life. The bleeding hearts at AP are using it as a last ditch appeal to help Lewis I am guessing. Maybe Saint Sarah will consider the way it was used in a sentence.
I have to say, borderline retarded or not, she was tried and she was convicted. Too bad, so sad, one less borderline retard killing innocent people in the world.
Earlier this week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Western media of having a double standard in reporting on the Lewis execution.
He 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.
Once again, Ahmanutjob proves that he truly is, a nut job. An American execution is the most politically correct method of execution in the world. We take the comfort and pain level of the person being executed into account.
A person being stoned to death receives no such consideration.
Have you ever seen The Religion of Peace mete out justice? Have you ever seen someone flogged or stoned to death? It’s ugly, there are videos on the ‘net showing it in graphic detail.
I found several stoning videos in a Google search, but I am not going to post them.
Lewis’ execution would be the first of a woman in Virginia since 1912. 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.
What have women wanted for years? Yep, you guessed it: EQUAL RIGHTS!
So, there you have it, justice administered to a woman the same way as it would be for a man.
I think the hit men should have received the death penalty as well. They certainly knew they were embarking on pre-meditated murder. Give them the axe.
One of em died in prison, suicide… But yeah, they should have been done officially too…
So, is today at 8 pm Central time when the “injection takes place?
Hopefully the person who pushes the button to start the IV flow into her, will whisper in her ear “back at you Bitch!
Damn the European Union and any other outsider, like that nut Ahmadinejad!
I am proud of my state, which is second only to Texas in the number of scumbags it has executed in recent years.
Oh, and BTW, if you don’t want to be executed, don’t commit the crime.
Saying I’m sorry doesn’t bring back her husband and his son.
The media seem to find it necessary to constantly harp on the gender of the condemned. Well, they’re for gender equality in everything else, why not lethal injections? Break the “glass ceiling” that exists on Death Row. Why aren’t the prattling scolds from NOW cheering this important advance?
Get it over with and save the taxpayers some money.
After researching this case I have a differing opinion. They are executing the wrong one. (If they do) IMO.
Here’s the thing:
Fred comes to me and says “Rob, I’ll give you 2 grand and a kilo of coke to take out this P.O.S professor that lives near you”
Now, I have the option to say NO, I have the ability to walk away from that “Job” The plan doesn’t go forward unless I agree to it.
IF I decided to do it and did a good job and took the money and coke I did it for profit. No matter how I did it, it’s what I do that ends the life, giving me money and coke doesn’t kill anyone, its the promise of pay that starts the crime, not the crime itself..
My opinion is that ALL involved should be executed or at the very least the 2 that performed the deed.
All that being said, I’m betting there will be a last minute stay or some political bullshit that stops it. If it doesn’t I won’t shed a tear. Matter of fact, while the seat is warm there are probably 50 more sitting on Death Row that should be executed NOW. While everyone is there form a damn assembly line.
The moral is: Never use a cut-rate assassin. If you want the best, you will NOT find them at Wal-Mart.
Plus a good divorce attorney is worth a couple of assassins any day.
Okay, gimme a minute, while I clean up from the Diet Pepsi I squirted through my nose whilst reading Robert’s comment. Jesus, Robert, how DID you know I was drinking a soda, brother? Give a man a break, carbonation kills the nasal passages. . .
Equality for women? Right on. I’m all for that.
So she says she’s a “changed woman”? I submit this: the husband and son are “changed men.” They changed into DEAD the moment their heads hit the floor.
BZ
Teresa Lewis is executed for 2002 murders
Equality at last! Equality at last! Thank God Almighty, we have equality at last!”
It only took 8 years to execute her for the crime. That’s pretty quick nowadays. There’s a lot more on death row whose meeting with the executioner needs to be speedup.
Equal justice under the law means just that! I am glad that the governor didn’t give in to the pressure. She was convicted and sentenced and the punishment was carried out, that is the way the system works and gender has no say in the matter. I don’t understand why the hitmen weren’t executed as well!
There was no last-minute stay.
The term “borderline retarded” means nothing, really. Even if Lewis were “borderline retarded,” she was still mentally competent enough for trial and conviction — and, yes, execution.
The two co-conspirators should also have been executed. I suspect that they were not because they had better lawyers and worked a plea bargain.
This article has extensive coverage of the case, with a slant to sympathy for Lewis (but still a good article):
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1314637/Teresa-Lewis-execution-Final-meal-Virginia-death-row-prisoner.html
For the record, I don’t give a tiddler’s damn about “international outrage.” Particularly from Ahmadinejad. Sheesh!
Interestingly enough, the local news here in Northern Virginia gave scant coverage to the objections to Lewis’s execution.