A Virginia grandmother who hired two men to murder her husband and stepson, so she could pocket their $250,000 life insurance policy, was executed by lethal injection Thursday at Greensville Correctional Center, Va., the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.Teresa Lewis, 41, was the first woman to be executed in the state of Virginia in almost 100 years and only the 12th woman executed across the nation since the death penalty was resumed in 1976 after a four-year hiatus.
She died at 9:13pm, according to officials cited by the Times-Dispatch, moments after a final statement directed towards her stepdaughter Kathy Clifton
"I just want Kathy to know I love her and I’m very sorry," she said.Although she pleaded guilty over the 2002 shooting deaths of Julian Lewis, 51, and his son, C.J. Lewis, 25, the condemned woman had become a symbol for campaigners against the death penalty, AFP reported.
Despite having an IQ of about 70, Lewis was considered fit for trial in Virginia.
She admitted she left the door of the family trailer in rural Pittsylvania County open so her accomplices Matthew Shallenberge and Rodney Fuller could enter and shoot the father and son.
All three pleaded guilty. The triggermen, who Lewis paid with sex and money, got life in prison but Lewis was sentenced to death, accused of being the mastermind of the killings
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