ianstone
09-24-2010, 02:15 PM
US Gran Is Executed For Plotting Murders
Comments (84) (http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/US-Teresa-Lewis-Is-Executed-In-Southern-Virginia-For-Plotting-Murders-Of-Her-Husband-And-Stepson/Article/201009415742184?lpos=World_News_First_World_News_A rticle_Teaser_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15742184_US%3A_Teresa_Lewis_Is_Execute d_In_Southern_Virginia_For_Plotting_Murders_Of_Her _Husband_And_Stepson#comments)
7:29am UK, Friday September 24, 2010
Carole Erskine, Sky News Online
A Virginia grandmother has been put to death for plotting the murders of her husband and stepson - the first woman to be executed in the US for five years.
Teresa Lewis (http://indepth.news.sky.com/InDepth/topic/Teresa_Lewis) was given a lethal injection at 2am BST at the Greensville Correctional Centre in southern Virginia while supporters and relatives of the victims watched.
Outside the prison, a group opposed to the death penalty rang a bell and prayed as Lewis went to her death.
She is the first woman in almost 100 years to be executed in Virginia.
More than 7,300 appeals to stop the execution had been made to Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell but he refused to intervene in the case.
The US Supreme Court had already rejected her request for a stay of execution.
Sky News' US correspondent Greg Milam (http://blogs.news.sky.com/americanpie), outside the Greensville Correctional Centre, said: "We have heard from some of the witnesses, four official witnesses who were inside that chamber describing the look of fear, the look of terror on the face of Teresa Lewis as she was taken into that execution chamber.
http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2010/Sep/Week4/15741233.jpg Supporters of Teresa Lewis said she had a personality disorder
"Her lawyer gave a very emotional speech after the execution in which he said he hoped what had happened here would make America look again at a badly broken system that put someone to death when there are such questions about their mental capacity."
Lewis pleaded guilty to hiring two men to murder her husband and stepson at the family's home in October 2002 so that she could collect £200,000 in life insurance.
But campaigners had argued that she was "borderline mentally retarded" and that assessments of her IQ as being between 70 and 72 made the execution unconstitutional.
http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2010/Sep/Week4/15742226.jpg Death penalty protesters waited outside Greensville Correctional Centre
Lewis admitted she left the door of the family trailer open in 2002 so the two could enter and shoot her husband and his 25-year-old son.
All three pleaded guilty but Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller were sentenced to life - after striking a plea deal with prosecutors - while Lewis received the death penalty as the mastermind of the killings.
But her supporters argued that she had a personality disorder, was addicted to prescription drugs and was manipulated by the more intelligent Shallenberger.
And they questioned why she should be executed when the two men who actually carried out the murder were handed life without parole.
Her lawyers had pointed to a letter from Shallenberger, who killed himself in jail in 2006, in which he claimed full responsibility for the murder plot and suggested he pushed Lewis into it.
Comments (84) (http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/US-Teresa-Lewis-Is-Executed-In-Southern-Virginia-For-Plotting-Murders-Of-Her-Husband-And-Stepson/Article/201009415742184?lpos=World_News_First_World_News_A rticle_Teaser_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15742184_US%3A_Teresa_Lewis_Is_Execute d_In_Southern_Virginia_For_Plotting_Murders_Of_Her _Husband_And_Stepson#comments)
7:29am UK, Friday September 24, 2010
Carole Erskine, Sky News Online
A Virginia grandmother has been put to death for plotting the murders of her husband and stepson - the first woman to be executed in the US for five years.
Teresa Lewis (http://indepth.news.sky.com/InDepth/topic/Teresa_Lewis) was given a lethal injection at 2am BST at the Greensville Correctional Centre in southern Virginia while supporters and relatives of the victims watched.
Outside the prison, a group opposed to the death penalty rang a bell and prayed as Lewis went to her death.
She is the first woman in almost 100 years to be executed in Virginia.
More than 7,300 appeals to stop the execution had been made to Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell but he refused to intervene in the case.
The US Supreme Court had already rejected her request for a stay of execution.
Sky News' US correspondent Greg Milam (http://blogs.news.sky.com/americanpie), outside the Greensville Correctional Centre, said: "We have heard from some of the witnesses, four official witnesses who were inside that chamber describing the look of fear, the look of terror on the face of Teresa Lewis as she was taken into that execution chamber.
http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2010/Sep/Week4/15741233.jpg Supporters of Teresa Lewis said she had a personality disorder
"Her lawyer gave a very emotional speech after the execution in which he said he hoped what had happened here would make America look again at a badly broken system that put someone to death when there are such questions about their mental capacity."
Lewis pleaded guilty to hiring two men to murder her husband and stepson at the family's home in October 2002 so that she could collect £200,000 in life insurance.
But campaigners had argued that she was "borderline mentally retarded" and that assessments of her IQ as being between 70 and 72 made the execution unconstitutional.
http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2010/Sep/Week4/15742226.jpg Death penalty protesters waited outside Greensville Correctional Centre
Lewis admitted she left the door of the family trailer open in 2002 so the two could enter and shoot her husband and his 25-year-old son.
All three pleaded guilty but Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller were sentenced to life - after striking a plea deal with prosecutors - while Lewis received the death penalty as the mastermind of the killings.
But her supporters argued that she had a personality disorder, was addicted to prescription drugs and was manipulated by the more intelligent Shallenberger.
And they questioned why she should be executed when the two men who actually carried out the murder were handed life without parole.
Her lawyers had pointed to a letter from Shallenberger, who killed himself in jail in 2006, in which he claimed full responsibility for the murder plot and suggested he pushed Lewis into it.