Two men were offered sex and money in return for killing husband, stepson
Teresa Lewis, 41, is scheduled to die by injection Thursday for trading sex and money in the hired killings of her husband and stepson in October 2002.
RICHMOND, Va. — A woman convicted of two hired killings is scheduled to die by injection Thursday and become the first woman put to death in Virginia in nearly a century, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block her execution.
Teresa Lewis, 41, was sentenced to death for providing sex and money to two men to kill her husband and stepson in October 2002 so she could collect on a quarter-million dollar insurance pay out. The nation's high court refused Tuesday to intervene.
Two of the three women on the court, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, voted to stop the execution. The court did not otherwise comment on its order.
The court's decision followed Gov. Bob McDonnell's refusal to reconsider a clemency request, which he rejected Friday.
"A good and decent person is about to lose her life because of a system that is broken," said attorney James E. Rocap III, who represents Lewis. He said he was referring to the decision by the Supreme Court and McDonnell's rejection of clemency.
Lewis herself said she was prepared, telling WTVR of Richmond that "if I have to go home with Jesus ... I know that's going to be the best thing."
"I want people to know that you can be a good person and make the wrong choice, I want people to know that," she added.
'Selfish goals'
Rocap appealed Monday to McDonnell to reconsider his decision to deny clemency to Lewis, claiming new evidence should spare Lewis the death penalty.
Rocap argued that one of the gunmen later claimed he manipulated Lewis, who is borderline mentally retarded, "to dupe her into believing he loved her so that he could achieve his own selfish goals."
McDonnell's legal counsel said the governor's decision would stand.
Based on a thorough review, "the governor found no compelling reason to grant clemency and made a final decision," J. Jasen Eige wrote to Rocap, who released the response Tuesday.
The Virginia case has had repercussions as far away as Iran.
An Iranian news agency reported Tuesday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the West of launching a "heavy propaganda" campaign against the case of an Iranian woman who had been sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery but failing to react with outrage over the imminent execution of Lewis in Virginia.
Ahmadinejad's reported comments came during a speech Monday to Islamic clerics and other figures in New York, where he is attending the U.N. General Assembly.
Lewis pleaded guilty in May 2003 to two counts of capital murder for hire in the slayings of her husband Julian Lewis and her stepson, Charles Lewis.
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