The case of the first woman to be executed in Virginia for a century
highlights America's death row shame
Alex Hannaford
Sunday August 22 2010
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/aug/21/teresa-lewis-death-row
On 23 September, 40-year-old Teresa Lewis will become the first woman
to be executed in the state of Virginia for almost a century. She'll
also be the first woman put to death in the US since 2005. Considering
that, in the intervening five years, around 220 men will have been
executed, it puts it into perspective: executing women is unusual. Of
more than 1,200 executions carried out since the US supreme court
reinstated capital punishment in 1976, only 11 were of women. And each
time that happens, it's stunningly bad PR for an increasingly
unpopular facet of the American justice system.
The facts of the Lewis case are fairly gruesome. In 2002, she was
convicted [http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/
ALeqM5jN4iQISdX9SDcejM0dWFEQvS9U1AD9H8RLD80] of persuading two men to
kill her husband and stepson to collect a $250,000 life insurance
policy. In return, she promised them a portion of the money, and sex
with her and her 16-year-old daughter.
Lewis pleaded guilty. So you might think that this is a cut-and-dried
death penalty case. But I don't think so, and if you look at the
facts, and consider the way the death penalty is administered in the
US generally, it leaves more than a bad taste.
A forensic psychiatrist testified that Lewis has an IQ of 72, placing
her in the "borderline range of intellectual functioning". Her co-
accused, Rodney Fuller and Matthew Shallenberger ? the two gunmen who
actually did the killing ? were sentenced to life imprisonment
(Shallenberger actually committed suicide a few years later). And
although the judge acknowledged that Lewis had led police to the men,
he described what she had done [http://pacer.ca4.uscourts.gov/
opinion.pdf/094.P.pdf] as "horrible and inhumane", and determining she
had masterminded the whole thing, sentenced her to death.
At appeal, her new lawyers argued her trial attorneys should have
presented hundreds of pages of medical records that showed her
dependency on prescription drugs and that she was too easily led by
other people to have plotted the murders. A psychiatrist specialising
in addiction testified [http://www.saveteresalewis.org/pdf/McCanceKatz
%20report.pdf] that Lewis's mental state before, during and
immediately after the killings was "significantly impaired" as a
result of developmental disabilities, borderline intellectual function
and that dependence on drugs.
The defence then produced vital evidence [http://
www.saveteresalewis.org/pdf/Shallenberger%20letter.pdf] ? a letter
from Shallenberger admitting it was he, not Lewis, who planned the
murder. "The only reason I had sex with the mother was," he wrote, "to
get her to fall in love with me so she would give me the insurance
money."
But the appeal court upheld the sentence.
In the eight years Lewis has been on death row, she is said to have
been a model prisoner. But on death row, good behaviour counts for
nothing. In a month's time, she will become the first woman executed
in Virginia since 1912.
Executing men has become routine ? most of the time, the deaths
warrant only a small mention in the local newspaper. But Lewis's
execution will, it is to be hoped, once again draw worldwide attention
to the fact that the United States is on the roll call of countries
with the less-than-salubrious distinction of carrying out the highest
number of executions, along with China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan,
Congo, Egypt and Iraq ? states with which the US perhaps ought to feel
a little uneasy being compared.
And later this year, there's a good chance that a British passport
holder, 51-year-old Linda Carty, will join Lewis. I have written about
Carty before [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/28/linda-carty-
innocent-death-row]: her trial was seriously flawed, and if, like
Lewis, she is also given a 2010 execution date, it will draw even more
attention to the US's dire record on capital punishment.
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information
Centre [http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/], told me that because of
juries' reluctance [http://thelegalbroadcastnetwork.squarespace.com/
the-lbn-blog/2010/1/6/richard-dieter-2009-death-penalty-information-
center-report.html] to dish out death sentences these days, it's fair
to assume that if Teresa Lewis was in court today, she probably
wouldn't be sentenced to die. "Particularly in Virginia," he said.
"There was just one death sentence in that state last year, and to say
Lewis is the worst of the worst is a stretch. Given the mitigating
evidence and the fact the shooters got life sentences, it strikes you
as unfair in the way it played out."
There's not much chance that Virginia governor Bob McDonnell will
commute Lewis's sentence to life. Considering McDonnell [http://
www.bobmcdonnell.com/index.php/issues/protecting_families] is pro-
life, opposes same-sex marriage and holds an A-rating from the
National Rifle Association for his gun rights advocacy, you can guess
where he stands on the death penalty.
In the past few years, serial killer Andre Crawford [http://
www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/18/andre-crawford-gets-life-_n_397877.html]
was spared the death penalty for the murders and rapes of 11 women on
Chicago's south side ? he got life in prison. In Virginia, Haiyang
Zhu, a former Virginia Tech student [http://www2.wsls.com/sls/news/
local/new_river_valley/article/
life_in_prison_for_haiyang_zhu_in_virginia_tech_murder/94380/] who
murdered and beheaded one of his fellow students, got life in prison.
If you agree with the death penalty, you must also agree that the
ultimate punishment should be meted out fairly. And the simple fact
is, it isn't.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010
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