She was the first woman executed in the United States in five years – the first executed in Virginia in 98 years.
Teresa Lewis, 41, who plotted with her young lover to kill her husband and stepson in 2002 for insurance money, was killed by lethal injection on Sept. 23, 2010. The two men who actually committed the double murder were sentenced to life in prison.
The most recent previous execution of a woman in the U.S. came in Texas in 2005. More than 1,200 people were executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Lewis became the 12th woman among them.
Numerous pleas were presented urging clemency for Lewis, including those which pointed out she was borderline retarded with an IQ of 72.
Evidence was also presented that one of the killers wrote a letter claiming that he, not Lewis, was the mastermind of the plot.
California has more than 700 people on Death Row, including 18 women. Due to court challenges, executions are on hold in the state. A new execution chamber for lethal injections has been constructed in San Quentin, replacing the historic apple-green gas chamber.
