The case cited below marks the first time a woman has been condemned in Virginia since reinstatement of the DP. I mention this case because she has been sentenced by the County Circuit Court Judge. While the case has similarities to the Marilyn Plantz case (executed in Oklahoma two years ago), that was before Ring vs Arizona. Since then I thought the jury had to impose a capital sentence. Obviously there are exceptions Can you clarify how this relates to Ring vs Arizona?
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Lewis sentenced to death
By JEFF DAVIS
Danville Register & Bee staff writer
Wednesday, June 4, 2003
www.registerbee.comCHATHAM, Va. — Teresa Lewis on Tuesday became the first woman to be sent to Virginia’s death row since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Lewis, 34, pleaded guilty on May 15 to two counts of capital murder after confessing that she hired two men to kill her husband, Julian Lewis, 51, and her stepson, C.J. Lewis, 25, in an effort to collect insurance money.
The last woman executed in the state of Virginia was Virginia Christian, who was 17 years old in 1912 when she was put to death in the state’s electric chair, said Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor.
Lewis stood emotionless Tuesday as Pittsylvania County Circuit Court Judge Charles Strauss rendered his decision.
In a statement to the court before the sentence was handed down, Lewis said she was “very sorry for what happened and all the people I hurt.” “If I could take things back, I would in a minute,” she said, adding that she wanted to spend her life in prison to “forgive herself” for what she did.
Traylor said Lewis would be transferred to a segregated wing at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Fluvanna County, where she would have her own cell.
Julian and C.J. Lewis were found shot to death on Oct. 30 at their home in Keeling.
Rodney Lamont Fuller, 21, pleaded guilty April 1 to his role in the murders and received life in prison without the possibility of parole. Matthew Jesse Shallenberger, 22, who also is charged in the murders, has pleaded not guilty. His trial is scheduled for July 7.
In imposing the sentence, Strauss said Lewis appeared cold and emotional throughout the proceeding and had “lured two other men and her juvenile daughter into a web of deceit, sex and murder.”<br>
According to testimony, Teresa Lewis met Shallenberger and Fuller at a Wal-Mart store in early October, after which she began having an affair with Shallenberger. At about the same time, C.J. Lewis, a reservist in the National Guard, updated his life insurance policy to make Julian Lewis the main beneficiary and Teresa Lewis the alternate.
The policy was worth $250,000.
After an aborted attempt to murder Julian Lewis, Teresa Lewis left the door to her home open on Oct. 30 so Shallenberger and Fuller could murder her husband and stepson.
Pittsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney David Grimes said Lewis later persuaded her daughter to lie about a phone conversation with her mother at the time of the shootings so Lewis would have an alibi.
In arguing for the death penalty, Grimes said Lewis had no regard for the feelings of the victims’ families and friends and was concerned only with the insurance money she hoped to collect.
“She knew that her husband being dead was worth something to her, but her husband and stepson being dead, that was worth a lot more,” Grimes said.
Defense attorney David Furrow argued Lewis should be sentenced to life in prison, pointing out that Fuller was guaranteed a sentence of life without the possibility of parole on the condition of his cooperation with authorities.
“Rodney Fuller is just as culpable as Teresa Lewis,” Furrow said, adding that there was no “qualitative difference” between Lewis and Fuller, and his client’s cooperation with authorities led them to Fuller and Shallenberger, whom they did not previously know about.
Defense attorney Tom Blaylock said the death penalty should be reserved “for the Timothy McVeighs and people who fly planes into the sides of buildings, killing thousands of people.”<br>
“Giving (Lewis) the death penalty won’t bring C.J. back, and it won’t bring Julian back,” he said, adding that life in prison would give Lewis time to “reflect on what she did and the grief she caused to this family.”<br>
In addition to the capital murder charges, Lewis pleaded guilty to two counts of using a firearm in the commission of murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit capital murder, robbery, and use of a firearm in the commission of robbery.
Strauss sentenced Lewis to life in prison for both the conspiracy to commit murder and robbery convictions, and a total of 13 years in prison for the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony convictions.
Grimes declined to comment on the ruling due to Shallenberger’s impending trial.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
