US executes first woman for five years [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Telegraph

US executes first woman for five years
Teresa Lewis, a grandmother who had become a symbol for campaigners against the death penalty, has been executed in Virginia.
By Nick Allen in Los Angeles
Published: 2:47AM BST 24 Sep 2010

Hopes for an 11th-hour reprieve came to nothing and Lewis died by lethal injection at 9.13pm (2.13am GMT) in Greensville prison.

The 41-year-old was the first woman to be executed in the United States since 2005, and the first in Virginia for almost 100 years.

She was only the 12th woman executed in the US since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1996.

Lewis had an IQ of only 72 but was considered fit for trial in Virginia.

She pleaded guilty to hiring two men in 2002 to murder her husband and stepson to cash in on their life insurance policy. Relatives of her victims witnessed the execution.



Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8021995/US-executes-first-woman-for-five-years.html

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Governor Bob McDonnell