THE US Supreme Court denied an emergency application yesterday that would have stopped Virginia from executing a woman convicting of two killings, clearing the way for the state to execute a female for the first time in nearly a century. A Court spokeswoman added that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor voted to stop the execution of Teresa Lewis, who is scheduled to die by legal injection tomorrow.
Lewis, 40, was convicted of taking part in the hired killings of her husband and stepson in October of 2002. Lewis paid two men, one of whom was her lover, and purchased the guns they used in the murders of Julian and Charles "C.J." Lewis. In exchange for the killings, Teresa Lewis planned to split an anticipated $250,000 insurance payment with the shooters, Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller.
She admitted her role in 2003, pleading guilty to seven overall criminal counts and two counts of murder for hire.
The Supreme Court was Lewis' last stop on the long legal road leading to her execution. She was also denied clemency last Friday by Virginia's governor, Bob McDonnell.
Lewis' lawyers have long argued that she should not be killed because she has tested as low as 70 on IQ tests and the Supreme Court has ruled that killing mentally handicapped people constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. However, the lower courts have continually denied the argument that Lewis qualifies as severely mentally handicapped.
In denying her clemency, McDonnell said last week that since no medical professional has ever concluded that Lewis was mentally retarded, there was no compelling reason for him to intervene on her behalf.
Shallenberger and Fuller both received life sentences for the the murders.
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