Virginia's only woman on death row says sentence unfair

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On Tuesday, lawyers for Teresa Lewis, the Commonwealth’s only female death row inmate, told a federal appeals court that her death sentence should be rescinded because her drug addiction and alleged personality disorders were not considered at her trial.

In 2002, Lewis pleaded guilty to masterminding the murder of her husband and stepson in Pittsylvania County.

At her sentencing, Circuit Court Judge Charles Strauss addressed Lewis, telling her that she was a cold, emotionless killer, and was motivated solely by financial reasons.

Prosecutors said that Lewis boasted to friends that she had married Julian Lewis Jr., simply for money and offered sex to the two men who carried out the murders. She was to be the sole beneficiary of $250,000 in insurance money.

The gunmen, Rodney Fuller and Matthew Shallenberger, were both sentenced to life in prison.

Lewis' daughter, Christie Lynn Bean, who knew about the plot but kept quiet, also served time in prison.

Lewis’ attorney, James Rocap now claims that his client was not capable of plotting the murders due to her severe dependency on prescription drugs, as well as a personality disorder which rendered her overly dependent on men.

If executed, she would be the first woman to die in Virginia’s death chamber since 1912.

 

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