CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—Calling on the Commonwealth of Virginia to lead the nation in promoting respect for the value of all human life, innocent and guilty alike, The Rutherford Institute is urging Gov. Robert McDonnell to commute the death sentence of 41-year-old Teresa Lewis, who is scheduled to be executed on September 23, 2010. If the execution is not halted, Lewis, who has an IQ of 72, which is two points above the threshold for clinical mental retardation, would be the first woman put to death in Virginia in nearly 100 years.
The Institute’s letter is available at www.rutherford.org.
Teresa Lewis was convicted in 2003 of conspiring to have two men kill her husband and stepson. Despite her mental deficiencies and her history of non-violence, Lewis was the only one of the three persons involved in the criminal plot who received a capital sentence. Her co-conspirators struck deals for and were granted life sentences. While the justice system was unwilling to compare Teresa’s sentence with those of her co-defendants upon review in March 2005, Dr. Costanzo, a professor of psychology and witness for the defense, noted that “From a psychological standpoint, a woman who is functionally retarded intellectually, with passive dependent personality disturbance, and a habit of submissively seeking men’s approval throughout her life, is a poor bet as the mastermind of a brutal murder plot.” In recent years, Lewis has become a devout Christian and spends much of her time praying for her fellow inmates at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women and for the families she helped hurt.
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