| Teresa Wilson Bean Lewis | |
|---|---|
Photo by the Virginia Department of Corrections |
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| Born | Teresa Wilson April 26, 1969[1] Danville, Virginia, USA |
| Died | September 23, 2010 (aged 41)[2] Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt, Virginia, USA |
| Conviction(s) | Capital murder[3] Conspiracy - capital murder[4] Robbery[5] Use of firearm in murder[6] Use of firearm in robbery[6] |
| Penalty | Death by lethal injection |
| Status | Executed on September 23, 2010[2] |
| Spouse | Julian Clifton Lewis, Jr. (murdered) |
| Parents | Melvin C. Wilson, Sr.[7] |
| Children | Kathy Lewis Clifton, stepdaughter[8] Charles J. Lewis, stepson (murdered) Jason Clifton Lewis, stepson (died)[9] Christie Lynn Bean, daughter[10] |
Teresa Wilson Bean Lewis (April 26, 1969 – September 23, 2010)[1][2] was an American who was the only woman on death row in Virginia prior to her execution.[11] She was sentenced to death by lethal injection for using sex and money to arrange for the murders of her husband and stepson in October 2002.[12] Lewis sought to profit from a $250,000 life insurance policy that her stepson had taken out as a U.S. Army reservist in anticipation of his deployment to Iraq.[13]
In September 2010, Lewis became the first female inmate to die by lethal injection in the state of Virginia.[14] The case attracted debate over capital punishment because of Lewis' gender and questions over her mental capacity.[12] Novelist John Grisham joined the opposition against Lewis' execution, noting that she had not carried out the actual killings herself. The state had last executed a woman in 1912.[15]
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Teresa Wilson grew up in poverty in Danville, Virginia, where her parents both worked in a textile mill.[13] Teresa sang in a church during her youth.[16] She dropped out of school and left home at age 16 to marry a man she met at church.[13] Though the couple had a daughter, Christie Lynn Bean,[9] the marriage soon ended in divorce. Teresa then turned to alcohol and painkillers.[13] Her mother-in-law, Marie Bean,[9] described Teresa as "not right".[13]
After migrating between dozens of low-paying jobs, Teresa Wilson Bean found work in the spring of 2000 at the Dan River textile mill, where she met supervisor Julian Clifton Lewis, Jr.[9][13] He was a recent widower with three children, Jason, Charles, and Kathy. Teresa moved into Julian's home in June 2000 and the two were soon married. In December 2001, Julian's older son Jason Clifton Lewis was killed in a car accident, leaving behind $200,000 from a life insurance policy.[9] Julian used the money to buy a mobile home on five acres of land in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.[13]
In August 2002, Julian's younger son Charles J. Lewis obtained a $250,000 policy because he had been assigned to a tour of duty in Iraq as part of the United States Army Reserve. Charles designated his father as the primary beneficiary and Teresa Lewis as the secondary beneficiary.[9][13]
In the fall of 2002, Teresa Lewis met 21-year-old Matthew Jessee Shallenberger and 19-year-old Rodney Lamont Fuller at a Wal-Mart in Danville and began a sexual relationship with both of them. Shallenberger and Lamont were given $1,200 by Lewis to purchase firearms and ammunition to kill Julian Lewis and his son Charles for the insurance money. Their first attempt to kill Julian while on the road did not succeed.[9][17]
In October 2002, Charles came home on a visit from Army training in Maryland. During the night October of 30, Shallenberger and Lamont entered the Lewis' trailer through a back door that Teresa had left open. While she waited in the kitchen, Shallenberger shot Julian, who was sleeping, several times while Fuller shot Charles in his bedroom with a shotgun.[13] Fuller shot Charles again twice after he found that his first three blasts did not kill him.[9] Teresa waited 45 minutes before calling for help and took money out of her dying husband's wallet.[18] She divided up $300 with Shallenberger and Fuller before they left the premises.[13] However, sheriff's deputies arrived before Julian died to hear him say, "My wife knows who done this do me."[18] She claimed the two had been killed by unidentified assailants in a home invasion.[13]
Teresa Lewis was soon caught attempting to use a forged check to withdraw $50,000 from her dead husband's account. About a week later, she confessed to law enforcement officers that she had offered money to have her husband killed.[9] Prosecutors found that Lewis had been attempting to gather the assets of her late husband and stepson before they had even been buried.[13]
During the murder trial, the judge deemed Lewis the mastermind of the crime and called her "the head of this serpent." Barbara G. Haskins, a court appointed, board-certified forensic psychiatrist, stated that "Cognitive testing showed a Full Scale IQ of 72. Verbal IQ was 70, and Performance IQ was 79." Dr. Haskins also stated that Teresa Lewis was and is able to make a plea agreement and enter pleas.[7] Lewis' lawyer stated that “She’s not mentally retarded, but she is very, very close to it." Lewis' daughter, Christie Lynn Bean, served five years because she knew about the plan but failed to report it.[10]
Defense attorneys found evidence against Lewis overwhelming and advised her to avoid a jury trial by pleading guilty to the capital charges in the hope that the judge would show some leniency as Lewis had been cooperating with investigators. However, she was sentenced to death.[15] Under Virginia law, multiple murders within a three-year period are subject to the death penalty.[20] The two co-conspirators who actually did the shooting, Shallenberger and his former roommate and friend Fuller, were sentenced to life imprisonment at separate trials.[9] Lewis was granted an automatic review by the Supreme Court of Virginia.[21] The Virginia Supreme Court rejected the argument that it was unfair to execute Lewis while the co-conspirators got life sentences, and it rejected Lewis' challenges to the constitutionality of Virginia's death penalty law.[22] Lewis was placed on death row at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Virginia.[13]
In November 2004, a private investigator met Shallenberger at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia on behalf of Lewis' appeals. Shallenberger wrote in a partially transcribed affidavit: "Teresa was in love with me. She was very eager to please me. She was also not very smart." However, Shallenberger tore off and ate the parts of the document that he had signed. Shallenberger said, "What will happen will happen."[13] and committed suicide at the prison in 2006.[9]
Over 7,300 appeals for clemency were reportedly sent to Virginia governor Bob McDonnell.[24] Lewis' supporters stated that "Lewis is deeply remorseful and has been a model prisoner, helping fellow female inmates cope with their circumstances."[25][26] Her father, Melvin C. Wilson, Sr., testified how Lewis took care of her invalid mother before she died.[7] Lewis herself stated that "I just want the governor to know that I am so sorry, deeply from my heart. And if I could take it back, I would, in a minute ... I just wish I could take it back. And I'm sorry for all the people that I've hurt in the process."[26] On September 17, 2010, McDonnell decided to not stop Lewis' upcoming execution,[8] stating: "Having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency, the judicial opinions in this case, and other relevant materials, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was imposed by the Circuit Court and affirmed by all reviewing courts."[19]
Her attorneys filed motions for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution,[27][28] but were denied on September 21, 2010. Dissenting Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor indicated that they would have granted a stay.[23]
Lewis was granted a last meal that consisted of two fried chicken breasts, sweet peas with butter, a Dr Pepper and German chocolate cake for dessert. Lewis addressed stepdaughter Kathy Lewis Clifton, who came to witness her execution, to apologize for killing her father.[29][30]
I just want Kathy to know that I love you, and I'm very sorry.—Last words of Teresa Lewis, September 23, 2010[29]
Lewis was executed on September 23, 2010, at 9 p.m. by lethal injection, at Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt.[31][32] This made her the 12th woman to be executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.[18][33] Lewis was the first woman to be executed in Virginia by lethal injection; the last woman to be executed in the state was Virginia Christian, who died in the electric chair in 1912.[14][34] Lewis was also the first woman to be executed in the U.S. since Frances Newton in 2005 in the state of Texas,[35] and the second woman to be executed since serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2002 in the state of Florida.[18] Opponents of capital punishment rang a bell outside the prison gates at the time of the execution.[36]
Lewis' execution started a debate in the U.S. and other parts of the world concerning capital punishment, and more specifically the application of death sentences on women in murder cases.[37] Richard Dieter, executive of the Death Penalty Information Centre, argued that "so few women are involved in more heinous murders that, when they are, they cause greater offence than if they had been men. Virginia's attorney general really pushed the fact that she had committed adultery with a co-defendant and that she was somehow dishonoured and should be looked down upon".[38] Ken Cuccinelli, the Attorney General of Virginia, stated that "the brutal nature of the crimes themselves as well as Lewis' callous, manipulating, adulterous, greedy, egregious behavior" justified the death sentence.[39]
Thousands of supporters argued that her death sentence should have been commuted to life imprisonment. Lewis' attorney James E. Rocap III said, "A good and decent person is about to lose her life because of a system that is broken ... it is grossly unfair to impose the death sentence on her while Shallenberger and Fuller received life."[12] Her low IQ also became a matter of discussion, with supporters citing this as a reason she should not have been sentenced to death.[37] Legal novelist John Grisham echoed these sentiments and argued that evidence indicated Shallenberger, who had an IQ of 113, was the actual mastermind. Grisham quoted from an affidavit by co-conspirator Rodney Lamont Fuller: "As between Mrs. Lewis and Shallenberger, Shallenberger was definitely the one in charge of things, not Mrs. Lewis."[15]
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cited the case to denounce Western media coverage of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman in Iran who had been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. He claimed the media's "heavy propaganda" campaign was perpetrating a double standard by not responding with similar outrage over Lewis' impending execution.[40][41] Executive director Larry Cox of Amnesty International, which opposes the death penalty under all circumstances, stated: "Proceeding with this execution would come dangerously close to violating the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits capital punishment for those with 'mental retardation' — a precedent established thanks to Atkins v. Virginia."[42]
In September 2010, the bronze grave markers of murder victims Julian Clifton Lewis, Jr. and Charles J. Lewis were reported stolen. The Schoolfield Cemetery had been experiencing problems with metal theft.[43]