Virginia Executes Woman with IQ of 72

losthorizon

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/24/teresa-lewis-executed-virginia

Another Man actually claimed he duped this lady into confessing to the murder

http://www.euronews.net/2010/09/23/mentally-retarded-woman-to-be-executed-in-us/

The Iranians are claiming its double standards by the west.

Sykk

Sky news version is better:

A Virginia grandmother has been put to death for plotting the murders of her husband and stepson - the first woman to be executed in the US for five years.


Teresa Lewis was given a lethal injection at 2am BST at the Greensville Correctional Centre in southern Virginia while supporters and relatives of the victims watched.
Outside the prison, a group opposed to the death penalty rang a bell and prayed as Lewis went to her death.
She is the first woman in almost 100 years to be executed in Virginia.
More than 7,300 appeals to stop the execution had been made to Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell but he refused to intervene in the case.
The US Supreme Court had already rejected her request for a stay of execution.
Sky News' US correspondent Greg Milam, outside the Greensville Correctional Centre, said: "We have heard from some of the witnesses, four official witnesses who were inside that chamber describing the look of fear, the look of terror on the face of Teresa Lewis as she was taken into that execution chamber.

Supporters of Teresa Lewis said she had a personality disorder
"Her lawyer gave a very emotional speech after the execution in which he said he hoped what had happened here would make America look again at a badly broken system that put someone to death when there are such questions about their mental capacity."
Lewis pleaded guilty to hiring two men to murder her husband and stepson at the family's home in October 2002 so that she could collect £200,000 in life insurance.
But campaigners had argued that she was "borderline mentally retarded" and that assessments of her IQ as being between 70 and 72 made the execution unconstitutional.

Death penalty protesters waited outside Greensville Correctional Centre
Lewis admitted she left the door of the family trailer open in 2002 so the two could enter and shoot her husband and his 25-year-old son.
All three pleaded guilty but Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller were sentenced to life - after striking a plea deal with prosecutors - while Lewis received the death penalty as the mastermind of the killings.
But her supporters argued that she had a personality disorder, was addicted to prescription drugs and was manipulated by the more intelligent Shallenberger.
And they questioned why she should be executed when the two men who actually carried out the murder were handed life without parole.
Her lawyers had pointed to a letter from Shallenberger, who killed himself in jail in 2006, in which he claimed full responsibility for the murder plot and suggested he pushed Lewis into it.

Lol!

scientific1982

Doesnt take away from the barbarism being committed by Iran every day.

Sanjuro

And yet the US frowns upon Sharia Law so much. I'm not saying it's worse than Sharia Law, but those in glass houses....

bonerm

So did the average IQ in Virginia go up or down after the execution?

up for anything

It's strange. Death by lethal injection seems far more horrific to me than the electric chair or even a blunt sword beheading. I wonder is that because it is medically induced and therefore seems very clinical or at odds with the belief that medicine is there to make you feel better and goes against everything my mother ever said to me as a child about how an injection might pinch for a few seconds but would make me feel better sooner which I have, in turn, repeated to my children on countless occasions.

PaddyBomb

I heard that her last words were something like "Wow, that was awesome".

Obviously she was mentally retarded. Because any person I seen using the word "awesome" looked mentally retarded.

RobbieTheRobber

I cant wait for the this thread to turn into a big ranting and raving session about the Death penalty because it will be bloody hilarious seeing as anytime there is a story about rape/murder/paedophiles in the news the majority of AH start calling for the hangman to be brought out.

Sanjuro

PaddyBomb wrote: »

Obviously she was mentally retarded. Because any person I seen using the word "awesome" looked mentally retarded.

Hmm...

PeterIanStaker

bonerm wrote: »

So did the average IQ in Virginia go up or down after the execution?

the trouble with the gene pool is there's no lifeguard:D

Uriel.

Lethal injection is (often) not a nice way to go.

Crazy that the two hitmen weren't given the death penalty as well. I guess they provided the the evidence that convicted her.

c_man

RobbieTheRobber wrote: »

I cant wait for the this thread to turn into a big ranting and raving session about the Death penalty

Nah, let's turn it into a debate on the reliability/accuracy of IQ tests!

That'll be fun

RMD

The US think they've a high horse on the moral matter of the death sentence simply because they do it in a "humane" way. There is no humane way in execution, it's barbaric. Stoning is horrible, but just because the US use lethal injection doesn't make them any form of authority on the matter.

losthorizon

up for anything wrote: »

It's strange. Death by lethal injection seems far more horrific to me than the electric chair or even a blunt sword beheading.

I dont know about that. One of the last times they used the electric chair in the US the guy being executed went on fire. They had to dowse him down and throw the switch again. Fairly awful.

leddpipe

Sanjuro wrote: »

Hmm...

the ironing is delicious!

Caveat

Apparently you only need an IQ of something like 80 (or less) to drive a car. Plenty of people with average IQs can't manage that though. Plenty of low IQ people have jobs too - real jobs.

The protest that the execution was morally wrong only really has any weight if people with the same IQs can't be relied upon to live/function independently, but they patently can.

How can someone be judged to be mentally incapable to stand trial and face consequences if they can at the same time be "allowed" to e.g. operate dangerous machinery, use gas appliances, drive etc?

MagicMarker

This is ridiculous, she should not have been executed because murder is wrong, not because she has a low fúcking IQ!

amacachi

What's the average IQ of the men executed by the US? There's loads who have a mental age below that of a teenager, this particular case is just doing the rounds because it's a woman involved.

amacachi

MagicMarker wrote: »

This is ridiculous, she should not have been executed because murder is wrong, not because she has a low fúcking IQ!

****in hippy. :pac:

ceadaoin.

losthorizon wrote: »

The Iranians are claiming its double standards by the west.

Why are American actions always held up as an example of 'the West'.

The majority of western countries have abolished the death penalty. It's an example of double standards by America, which is hardly a big surprise.

Also, I can't imagine why anyone would want to be an exectutioner? Must pay well or something

ejmaztec

It was unfortunate for her that the judge had an IQ of 61.

Renn

MagicMarker wrote: »

This is ridiculous, she should have been executed because murder is wrong, not because she has a low fúcking IQ!

FYP

LarrytheLantern

IQ tests are not a reliable indicator of cognitive ability.
besides it's very easy to cheat on IQ tests and give a deliberately low score.


that said it would be nice to see the rope reintroduced on these islands for especially heinous crimes.
for instance i would have no problem see the 2 animals that killed Baby P doing the jig. likewise Hindley & Brady ought to have been roped.

it would save the taxpayer a small fortune, and would take at least 1 person (maybe 2 if an assistant was needed) off the dole.

Flojo

Iran saying it's double standards... pfft idiots. This woman plotted the murder of her husband and her stepson for money... not as if she just commited adultery anyways, once again idiots.

She was "borderline" mentally retarded yeah fair enough borderline doesn't mean fully as we know. She still managed to plot and carry out those murders still meaning that she's well capable for such acts so it doesn't count. Hell even her lawyer said she wasn't mentally retarded but very close to it.
Good enough for her!

losthorizon

ceadaoin. wrote: »

Why are American actions always held up as an example of 'the West'.

Its because the US claims leadership for itself. You only have to listen to speeches given by their leaders and representatives and they claim to be just that. Just as Obama did yesterday at the UN.

liah

I don't get this case at all.

The woman plotted to kill them, but didn't actually.

The men who did kill them, however, only got the life sentence.

Meanwhile the woman who only plotted but outside of that, did nothing, gets killed?

Can someone explain this a little better? Why are the murderers not on trial? Why was her case of plotting murder worth breaking 100 years of no capital punishment? Why was HER crime so heinous that it was brought back?

I'm clearly missing something.

Flojo

liah wrote: »

I don't get this case at all.

The woman plotted to kill them, but didn't actually.

The men who did kill them, however, only got the life sentence.

Meanwhile the woman who only plotted but outside of that, did nothing, gets killed?

Can someone explain this a little better? Why are the murderers not on trial? Why was her case of plotting murder worth breaking 100 years of no capital punishment? Why was HER crime so heinous that it was brought back?

I'm clearly missing something.

She actually did! "Lewis admitted organising the slaying of her husband Julian and his son Charles to claim their life insurance premiums."

ScumLord

I don't see why she should be excused from the death penalty just because she's a stupid woman. It's really only stupid people that do these kind of crimes. I don't agree with the death penalty at all but I think under the American system there was no reason why she shouldn't get the death sentence for what she did if that's the penalty that anyone else would have got under the same circumstances.

RMD wrote: »

The US think they've a high horse on the moral matter of the death sentence simply because they do it in a "humane" way.

Americans don't really believe injections or any other method of execution they use is really all that humane. It's well known the most humane way to kill any animal is through inert gas which causes no suffering. But Americans that support the execution don't want murderers and the like to have a comfortable death. They like the thought of the person suffering but don't actually want to have to see too much suffering.

Scuid Mhór

well this is incredibly stupid.

liah

Flojo wrote: »

She actually did! "Lewis admitted organising the slaying of her husband Julian and his son Charles to claim their life insurance premiums."

But...

And they questioned why she should be executed when the two men who actually carried out the murder were handed life without parole.
Her lawyers had pointed to a letter from Shallenberger, who killed himself in jail in 2006, in which he claimed full responsibility for the murder plot and suggested he pushed Lewis into it.

The woman admitted to PLOTTING, but from what I've read she wasn't the one to do the killing.

Flojo

liah wrote: »

But...



The woman admitted to PLOTTING, but from what I've read she wasn't the one to do the killing.

Doesn't matter in my book. Its her fault they're dead, she was just too much of a coward to do it herself.