Teresa Lewis became the first woman in nearly a century to be executed in Virginia last night. Lewis was convicted of masterminding a plan to murder her husband and 25-year-old stepson in an effort to collect insurance money and her husband’s estate.
Two gunmen, Rodney Fuller and Matthew Shallenberger, were given life sentences for the October 2002 murders; Shallenberger committed suicide while in prison in 2006. Lewis was put to death by lethal injection by Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Va., according to The Associated Press.
Although her gender generated national interest—she is the first woman to have been executed in the United States since 2005—questions abound about Lewis’ mental capacity. She was judged to have an IQ of 72, which falls just above the standard for mental retardation.
Governor Bob McDonnell denied her petitions for clemency on Friday. The Supreme Court voted to move forward with Lewis’ execution, with dissenting opinions from Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonia Sotomayor.
Among those who rose up in Lewis’ defense was John Grisham, who noted in a Washington Post op-ed that Lewis lacked "the basic skills necessary to organize and lead a conspiracy to commit murder for hire"; had a personality disorder that made her rely on men; suffered from physical ailments that led to an addition to pain medication; and that she had "not a single episode of violent behavior in the past."
"In Virginia, the law is hardly consistent," wrote Grisham. "There have been other cases with similar facts—a wife and her lover scheme to kill her husband for his money or for life insurance proceeds. But there is no precedent for the wife being sentenced to death."
The ripples were felt as far away as in Iran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad noted, "A woman is being executed in the United States for murder but nobody protests against it." Iran faces international protests for sentencing a woman death by stoning after being charged with adultery.
At Slate, Dahlia Lithwick qualified that she didn’t think Lewis should be executed. "Here’s something: If Lewis were a man, her execution would hardly be news," she wrote. "Here’s another: Gender notwithstanding, Lewis is actually a pretty great candidate for capital punishment."
