An exe­cu­tion date of September 23 was recent­ly set for Teresa Lewis, the only woman on Virginia​’s death row. Although a num­ber of oth­er peo­ple were involved in the same crime, includ­ing the actu­al shoot­ers of the two vic­tims, Lewis was the only per­son sen­tenced to death. She pled guilty at tri­al. Since being sent to death row in 2002, Lewis has tak­en respon­si­bil­i­ty and apol­o­gized for her actions. She has had an exem­plary record while in prison and does not appear to be a future dan­ger if she remained there. Her cur­rent attor­neys have point­ed to her low IQ (mea­sured as low as 72) and her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to being led by oth­ers as mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors for the crime. She has a Dependent Personality Disorder and suf­fered from oth­er men­tal dis­abil­i­ties at the time of the crime. If her exe­cu­tion goes through, Lewis would be the first woman to be exe­cut­ed in Virginia since 1912 and the first in the United States since 2005.

Lewis received the death penal­ty for plot­ting to have her hus­band and step­son killed to col­lect a $250,000 life insur­ance pol­i­cy. The two trig­ger­men received life sen­tences, but Lewis received a death sen­tence because pros­e­cu­tors alleged she had orches­trat­ed the plan. However, Lewis’s attor­neys have offered evi­dence that one of the shoot­ers admit­ted he planned the killings, show­ing affec­tion and using Lewis to get to her hus­band’s mon­ey. He lat­er com­mit­ted sui­cide in prison.

Less than 1% (11 out of 1221) of the exe­cu­tions car­ried out since 1976 have been of women.

(D. Potter, ​“1st US exe­cu­tion of woman since 2005 set for Sept.,” Associated Press, July 29, 2010; see also Teresa Lewis Web site). See Women and Intellectual Disability.

Citation Guide