Sep 22 2010
US To Execute 12th Woman Since 1976 Death Penalty Reinstatement
Teresa Lewis is set to be executed by lethal injection in the state of Virginia tomorrow. Last night the US Supreme Court denied a stay of execution in her case. The 41-year old is set to be the 12th woman executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Virginia has not executed a woman since 1912. Lewis was convicted in 2002 of arranging to have her husband and step-son murdered in order to collect life insurance money. The murders were carried out by two men, Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller, who each received a sentence of life without parole for fatally shooting the victims. Shallenberger and Teresa Lewis were having an affair at the time of the murders. In 2006 Shallenberger killed himself in jail. In a letter he wrote three years earlier, Shallenberger wrote, “Killing Julian and Charles Lewis was entirely my idea. I needed money and Teresa was an easy target.” [NOTE: we erroneously reported on the air that the quote was from Shallenberger’s suicide letter]. Teresa Lewis has an IQ of 72, only two points above the recognized score for mental retardation. She has also been diagnosed with dependent personality disorder, a condition characterized by submissive behavior and a fear of abandonment. Virginia’s Governor Robert McDonnell denied Lewis clemency on September 17th. On Monday Lewis’ lawyer James Rocap wrote to the Governor reiterating the facts of the case that have led to international attention and sympathy for Lewis and pleaded for Teresa’s sentence to be commuted from death, to life without parole. The official response from the Governor’s office was that it saw “no compelling reason to grant clemency”.
GUEST: Jim Rocap, Teresa Lewis’ lawyer, with the law firm Steptoe and Johnson in Washington DC.
If you think Teresa Lewis’ should not be executed on Thursday, contact the Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell by clicking the following link: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm
Suggested text to email the governor:
Dear Governor McDonnell,
I’m writing to you as a private citizen, urging you to please stop the execution of Teresa Lewis tomorrow. How imminently unfair it is that the people who pulled the trigger were sentenced to life while Teresa, whose IQ is only 2 points above what constitutes mental retardation, is facing death!
This case has deeply moved me. Please do not let this woman die. Commute her sentence to life in prison. But do not allow her to be killed.
With respect,
[Signature]
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