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Virginia carries out execution of Teresa Lewis

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed in this new Washington Post story, "Teresa Lewis, who plotted with a young lover to kill her husband and stepson for insurance money, became the first woman executed in Virginia in nearly 100 years Thursday night when she was killed by lethal injection." Here are more details of what makes this execution notable: Lewis is the 12th woman to be executed in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. The most recent was in Texas in 2005, when Frances Newton was killed by lethal injection for shooting her husband and two children. Although the fight for Lewis's life did not draw nearly the attention of that surrounding Karla Faye Tucker, the pickax killer turned born-again Christian executed in 1998, more than 5,500 people signed an electronic petition asking McDonnell to spare her...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 23, 2010 (boomark / email).