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Questions linger as Teresa Lewis awaits execution
How could she mastermind her husband’s murder when she has an IQ of only 70?
Whether she is an evil murderer, or was duped by a cunning lover into a plot to kill her husband, Teresa Lewis is set to become the first woman to be executed in Virginia for nearly a century.
Waiting on death row, she is due to have her life ended by lethal injection on Thursday after Governor Bob McDonnell rejected her petition for clemency. The last remaining hope for Lewis and her supporters is that the US Supreme Court intervenes on her behalf.
The 40-year-old had pleaded guilty to hiring two gunmen, Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller, to kill her husband Julian and stepson Charles so she could collect a $350,000 life-insurance policy.
Court records show that Lewis was having an affair with the 22-year-old Shallenberger, with whom she plotted the murder.
In 2002, she unlocked the back door to her house so Shallenberger and Fuller could come in and shoot her husband, Julian, and stepson, Charles, as they slept. She then waited 45 minutes to ensure they were dead before calling for help.
However, Julian was still alive when police arrived and told them: "My wife knows who done this to me".
The two gunmen were given life without parole but Lewis, seen as the instigator, was given the death sentence. However, new facts have come to light since the hearing, which campaigners claim prove that Lewis was not "the head of this serpent", as the judge put it.
Shallenberger is said to have written in a letter to a fellow inmate that he deliberately manipulated Lewis into going along with his plan to get the money.
"I met Teresa at the Walmart in Danville. From the moment I met her I knew she was someone who could be easily manipulated," Shallenberger allegedly wrote. "Killing Julian and Charles Lewis was entirely my idea. I needed money, and Teresa was an easy target."
Lewis's attorney, James Rocap, also claims that Shallenberger admitted to being the mastermind, but when it came time to sign an affidavit, he peeled away the pieces of paper he had signed and ate them. In 2006 he committed suicide in prison.
"It makes no sense on any level for Teresa to receive a death sentence when the person who was the principal motivator in this, admittedly, received life," Rocap said.
Governor McDonnell said he saw "no compelling reason" to stop the execution, even though critics point to the state's own expert placing her IQ at 70. A person with a score below 70 counts as mentally retarded and executing such an individual would be unconstitutional.
Lewis has since spoken of her regret, saying, "If I could take it back, I would, in a minute... I just wish I could take it back. And I'm sorry for all the people that I've hurt in the process."
No woman has been executed in Virginia since 1912, when Virginia Christian was sent to the electric chair for murder. ·
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I disagree with the death penalty, apart from for mass murderers such as politicians, so I sincerely hope that this execution does not go ahead. However, let's be in no doubt about one thing, the only reason there is a concerted attempt to get this murderess off the hook is because she is a woman. The press have made their universal contempt for men obvious and the hypocrisy of the media, as the women who control it from medium level positions constantly try to pervert the course of justice knows no bounds. It's ironic that these same man hating women have self righteously report on how innocent black men would be rounded up in America in years gone by and linched after a girl had cried rape, but the mentality of these women is identical to that of those vile screaming mobs. Maybe the death penalty should also be reserved for these journalists for their crimes against humanity.
Teresa Lewis isn't retarded. She wrote a fairly well worded testimony of her faith, which is published on the web. She also likely was coached to flub questions on her IQ test to help lower her score. Â Â That was the impression of one psychologist who administered the test, that the subject was "not putting forward her best effort". Â Teresa isn't the brightest bulb, but she does understand and acknowledge her crime as well as that death is her punishment for that crime. Â Â
She isn't lying in a puddle of her own waste, babbling incoherently at Fluvanna either, she is constantly participating  in interaction at prison church services.  Additionally, she did manage to graduate from high school and spent a semester at college. Â
She has given several articulate interviews to media reporters in recent weeks. Â While her supporters claim she is retarded, they undermine their claim by referring to Teresa's potential to establish a prison ministry to help other inmates. Â Â
Governor McDonnell made the right decision to respect the ruling of our courts and refuse to intervene in this case. Â Teresa Lewis is a wolf trying to masquerade as a sheep. Â