AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGES GOV. MCDONNELL TO COMMUTE TERESA LEWIS’ DEATH SENTENCE, SAYS EXECUTION ‘WOULD COME DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO VIOLATING THE U.S.

(Washington, DC) – Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) today urged Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell to commute the death sentence of Teresa Lewis.  If Lewis, a mentally challenged woman who was convicted of plotting the murders of her husband and stepson, is executed on September 23, she would be the first woman killed in Virginia’s death chambers since 1912.  “Proceeding with this execution would come dangerously close to violating the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits capital punishment for those with ‘mental retardation’ -- a precedent established thanks to Atkins v. Virginia,” wrote