Middle East Focus: Iran and Virginia: Ashtiani vs. Teresa Lewis…….

Arabia Deserta

Iran and Virginia: Ashtiani vs. Teresa Lewis…….

Walking on water

“Iran accused the US of human rights violations today over plans by the state of Virginia to execute a woman for the first time in nearly 100 years, despite claims that she has severe learning difficulties. Iran's state-sponsored media has devoted considerable coverage to reports about Teresa Lewis, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday for arranging the murder of her husband and stepson in 2002. The parliamentary human rights committee said her case reflected "the double standards" of the American government, comparing her case to that of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery……..”

“On Friday, Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell said that he would not commute the death sentence of Teresa Lewis, a 41-year-old mother of two who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday night. Ms. Lewis admitted that she had conspired with the two accomplices who shot and killed her husband and stepson in 2002. One of them was her lover at the time. As The Washington Post reported, Ms. Lewis’s supporters, “have argued that she does not deserve to die because she is borderline mentally retarded and was manipulated by a much smarter conspirator……”

It is a double standard, now that Sakineh is not likely to be stoned. Both women are charged with conspiring with their lovers to kill their husbands, both face death. Both are at a legal disadvantage under their fundamentalist systems (Iranian and Southern Republican), Ms. Lewis because of an alleged mental disability.
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