US executes first woman for five years

Source: Telegraph

US executes first woman for five years
Teresa Lewis, a grandmother who had become a symbol for campaigners against the death penalty, has been executed in Virginia.
By Nick Allen in Los Angeles
Published: 2:47AM BST 24 Sep 2010

Hopes for an 11th-hour reprieve came to nothing and Lewis died by lethal injection at 9.13pm (2.13am GMT) in Greensville prison.

The 41-year-old was the first woman to be executed in the United States since 2005, and the first in Virginia for almost 100 years.

She was only the 12th woman executed in the US since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1996.

Lewis had an IQ of only 72 but was considered fit for trial in Virginia.

She pleaded guilty to hiring two men in 2002 to murder her husband and stepson to cash in on their life insurance policy. Relatives of her victims witnessed the execution.



Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8021995/US-executes-first-woman-for-five-years.html

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http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com.nyud.net:8090/btb/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/bob_mcdonnell.jpg

Governor Bob McDonnell

all across the nation.

Spineless, blood-thirsty McDonnell could've showed some of that compassionate conservatism for once, and halted the execution because of abundant evidence that Teresa Lewis was a victim of her own mental retardation and neediness. She was no less of a victim than her husband and her stepson.

I am deeply saddened by this.

In that five years how many poor black men have been executed?

And while I am against the death penalty and am saddened when anyone is executed, she is not "no less of a victim." That's just ridiculous.

I.Q. of 72?

Something's fishy there. :(

There are plenty of examples of poor, uneducated men being put to death. (And frankly, I've never understood or particularly put much creedence in IQ measurements).

Of course women matter, but why should we be especially upset that a *woman* is executed, when the ratio of men to women executed since 1976 is 100 to 1?

How come when anything is about a woman, good or bad, it always has to come back to being a man?

Yes, it's okay to talk about women. Last time I checked, they were more than 50 percent of the population.

Men do not commit 99% of murders, and yet they are vastly overrepresented on death row.

why not go all out? Why not say it's a *white* woman who is executed, and that is somehow notable?

that he manipulated her from the git-go. He and his buddy, Fuller, both concocted this scheme, immediately seeing this woman was easy to manipulate.

Why did they get life and she got death? Does that seem fair to you?

And the last female to be executed in Virginia was a poor black girl who was only 17-years-old, back in 1912.

Anyway, this case stinks to high hell and yes, she IS no less of a victim than her husband and his stepson. Doesn't matter anymore since she's dead now ... just like they are.

Shallenberger committed suicide three years after writing his confession and handing it to a fellow inmate, and Fuller is still alive. Pathetic.

And I fail to see the sexism, I'm sorry. In that 100 years, over 100 times as many men have been executed in Virginia.

while Lewis got the DP.

The sexism lies in the fact that Shallenberger and Fuller are MEN. They concocted this scheme and pulled the triggers, not Lewis. Also, only two of the three female justices at SCOTUS voted to stop the execution. Not ONE male justice bothered. Yes, I know about the many men executed over the past century, and the majority of them were black, according to statistics. An alarming majority, btw.





I hope that cleared it up a bit.

Very easy to excuse a dead person.

I'm sorry, it's not sexism. In fact, what's sexist is the paternalistic view that when a woman is on death row, she should be treated differently than others on death row.

And again, I'm not in favor of the death penalty, but read two sentences out of that article:

"Lewis offered herself and her 16-year-old daughter for sex to Shallenberger and Fuller. She stood by while they shot Lewis, 51, and his son, who was 25, in 2002 in Pittsylvania County in Southside Virginia.

Lewis rummaged through her husband's pockets for money while he lay dying and waited nearly an hour before calling 911."

This is not a victim. This is a callous, possibly psychopathic person.

It didn't mention anything in the article linked.

Either way, sucks that we're one of the few 'advanced' nations that has a death penalty...


*on edit.. Never mind, I reread what you wrote and realized I misread.

Or is that use of "for" some rediculous Britishism.

It was 1976, not 1996.

The last woman was executed in 2005, so she is the first woman executed for five years. i.e. there have been no women executed for the last five years (in your mangled version of the language of Shakespeare you would probably say "in").

And before you try to get sniffy about other people's command of the English language, I suggest you buy a spell checker.

Newspapermen are idiots.

It almost seems impossible here, that having gotten that much saner, more civilized, it slipped right back with a vengeance, after all, only 4 years later.

http://filipspagnoli.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2009/12/death-penalty-map-united-states.png

Map published December, 2009.
Massive failure for the human race.

You'd think this profoundly limited woman had harmed all the reactionary Americans who've expressed worshipful gratitude for her execution, and deep bitterness someone didn't draw and quarter her, or go after her with a chainsaw, like the Colombian right-wing paramilitaries working their way through Colombian villages they want to empty.

But death was not appropriate in this instance.

Not the least of the things obviously wrong here is a death sentence imposed after a guilty plea. Incompetence of counsel or dishonesty at the bench must have been features of the sentence.

I think it probably slipped my conscious mind temporarily, but I've been aware, can almost remember some interesting remarks you've made in that direction. Didn't mean to imply you take an anti-D.P. position.

It's completely unlikely the woman was well represented, and the public sentiment was undoubtedly loud, and persistant, and dangerous to resist for anyone with political ambition. Doesn't seem likely that environment would allow any other possibility for a prosecutor who wanted to get out alive him/herself.

Anyone who has actually known anyone truly that limited has been sadly aware how incapable they are of actual understanding, even though they appear capable of basic tasks. It's simply as if they live in a different world, and you think about them years after you've met them, with real, lasting sadness. It's truly as if they never had a chance, if they are that isolated mentally, emotionally, surrounded by similar people, all living at a very rough level of existance.

It's a matter of exposure for people to develope understanding of the differences in people outside their own social backgrounds, and how they live, and think, to really know them. It's necessary for them to go beyond their own personal needs and beliefs to be open enough to learn about others, to see into their worlds, their lives, and understand it's going to be that way for them until they die, and their children, of course, and probably their grandchildren.

Oh, well.

Thanks for your comments.

An IQ of 72???!? Good God.

that's probably above average.

wrong practice just to pacify the blood lust of many Americans. nt

Smart enough to hate her husband and step-son.

Smart enough to want them dead.

Smart enough to die for it.

please tell me your sense of bloodthirst at least demands consistency.

Possible they weren't eligible? 'Only' murder, and no compounding conspiracy charge or something?

I'd be curious to read more about their cases. Gut reaction, I certainly think they should have shared her fate.

I've read about cases like this before.

Hit men always sell out the people who hired them for a better deal. Yet another reason not to ask someone to commit murder.

Doesn't really matter how smart she was, though. State shouldn't be putting people to death.

Makes her smart enough for the punishment.

I disagree with the second part of your statement.

Dozens and dozens of reasons why the state shouldn't be putting people to death.

We disagree and probably always will.

her husband because he had money. So she had this thing in her
head all along.

She was lucky to have died painlessly. Her husband and step son died
with much pain. I heard the husband was still barely alive when the
cops showed up and was whimpering his wife's name.

however heinous the crime.

then smart enough to convince two guys to kill her husband.
She knew it was wrong but greed overruled morality. I have
no sympathy for cold blooded, calculated & planned murder for any reason,
but especially just for money.

stop the execution would have pitched a fit if the state had tried to ban her from voting because she was not quite retarded. I take no joy in an execution, not even Tim McVeigh's, but I don't see it as either unconstitutional or morally wrong .

For what it's worth, I agree with you

Have never heard of that.

In your haste to flog people who do NOT approve of capital punishment on moral grounds, you shouldn't reach for situations which don't exist, to my knowledge, to prove your point.

As I have understood it, everyone in the country has a right to vote if he/she is not in prison, or lives in a state which doesn't allow a felon to vote after he/she is released from prison.

It's gruesome.

Why would you think that?

You love the DP.
It gives you so many chances to annoy liberals, and you crave the attention.

All I acknowledge is that sometimes it's the appropriate punishment. You sound like a pro-lifer attacking a pro-choicer.

Annoy liberals? Ah, a passive-aggressive accusation that I'm not a liberal. Have I failed a purity test of yours?

Since when is hate a smart emotion? Or wishing someone dead? An IQ of 72 is actually so low that there is no real mental connection between talking about killing someone and doing it. There is almost no understanding of what death is. Or of consequences.

A smart person wouldn't do these things.

Lots of smart people in prison for murder.

She's a murderer, plain and simple. She was smart enough to enjoy and take part in the conspiracy and didn't have the basic human instinct not to murder their own family, she earned her fate.

even if it gave personal resolve to a victim's family... this support for the death penalty has caused many to die erroneously.

What heartless dicks.

The Lewis execution stirred an unusual amount of attention because of her gender, claims she lacked the intelligence to mastermind the killings and the post-conviction emergence of defense evidence that one of the triggermen manipulated her.

Throughout her life, a faith in God had been a seeming constant for Lewis — whether it was the prayer with her husband or her ministry behind bars. But by her own admission, Lewis' life has been marked by outrageous bouts of sex and betrayal even as she hewed to the trappings of Christianity.

"I was doing drugs, stealing, lying and having several affairs during my marriages," Lewis wrote in a statement that was read at a prison religious service in August. "I went to church every Sunday, Friday and revivals but guess what? I didn't open my Bible at home, only when I was at church."

Her father said she ran off to get married, then later abandoned her children and ran off with her sister's husband. Then she had an affair with her sister's fiance while at the same time having an affair with another man.

Lewis' life took a deadly turn after she married Julian, whom she met at a Danville textile factory in 2000. Two years later, his son Charles entered the U.S. Army Reserve. When he was called for active duty he obtained a $250,000 life insurance policy, naming his father the beneficiary and providing temptation for Teresa Lewis.

Both men would have to die for Lewis to receive the insurance payout.

She met at a Walmart with the two men who ultimately killed Julian Lewis and his son. Lewis began an affair with Matthew Shallenberger and later had sex with the other triggerman, Rodney Fuller. She also arranged sex with Fuller and her daughter, who was 16, in a parking lot.

On the night before Halloween in 2002, after she prayed with her husband, Lewis got out of bed, unlocked the door to their mobile home and put the couple's pit bull in a bedroom so the animal wouldn't interfere. Shallenberger and Fuller came in and shot both men several times with the shotguns Lewis had bought for them.

On a grassy knoll beside the correctional center, those opposed to the execution protested with signs and banners in the twilight Thursday. Critics said they were repulsed by Virginia's killing of a woman. "Tonight the death machine exterminated the beautiful childlike and loving spirit of Teresa Lewis," said the condemned woman's lawyer, James Rocap.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_woman_s_execution_virginia

Lacked intelligence? Borderline retarded? A beautiful childlike and loving spirit? :wtf:

Nice.

population into a downward death spiral!

Ohio's probably going to set a record for executions this year, and everyone seems pretty excited about it.

We're in such good company. We ought to start a club. Oh, wait. We have. The Countries With The Most Executions In The World Club. Cheers!

they can be easily manipulated. she did not deserve to die.

that`s america-a death for a death.

Granted, a straight up IQ test isn't really meaningful, Bush Jr. scored pretty decent on that count. But if she was truly mentally incompetent, I would object.

But gender? Not a chance. I haven't been fighting for equal pay for women, and equal treatment in jobs, and a host of other issues, only to have people whining that it's not fair to execute women, specifically, for committing murder or conspiracy/felony murder, etc.

Ridiculous. Knock it off. Oppose the death penalty if you want, I do, but don't undermine actual gender equality with this tripe.

gender equality would mean that no men would be executed for about 100 years to catch up.
I'm not saying women should be executed - no one should - but the death penalty is strongly biased against men. I suppose you could argue that more men commit violent crimes, but even when that is factored in there are far more men executed than women.

Supporting the death penalty is one thing. (It's wrong, but I understand that a lot of people disagree.) But constantly, actively EVANGELIZING in support of the death penalty? That seriously makes me wonder.

I'm simply making a point.

You're simply arbitrarily cheering its usage.

Even though I am 100% opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances, I at least understand there are differing opinions on this issue. But the fact remains that no one, NO ONE, should be as over the moon over an execution as you seem to be. Certainly not to the point that they're still able to call themselves a liberal.

I believe she deserved to be executed.

And yes, I call myself a liberal.

You're simply attacking because you disagree.

Yeah ....

I wish we didn't have the death penalty, but you make it sound as if it's a eugenics program.

Murderers who die by lethal injection usually get a much more peaceful, humane death than what they gave their victims.

It doesn't matter if she was borderline retarded. She was a horrible human being but the state should never put people to death. The death penalty is wrong. It doesn't work. She should have gotten life without the possibility of parole.

IT bothers me that people seem to only care about "poster boys" (men who are obviously wrongfully convicted) or "poster girls" (pretty much any woman) when it comes to the Death Penalty. Yes, these things are horrible, but it makes it sound like when it's someone who obviously did it, then the Death Penalty's okay, but it's not.

Debatable. If this were a heat of the moment crime that she did herself, her low IQ would be more compelling to me, but her actions were deliberate and thoughtful.

A final check from me.

:hi:

....how often DU Gun Enthusiasts turn up on the hyper-conservative side of a host of other issues, like the death penalty. Could it be the kind of company you're keeping?

Because a majority of Democrats and Liberals support the judicious use of the death penalty.

I'm not sure I or these other Democrats and Liberals would agree that supporting the use of the death penalty in some cases is "hyper-conservative".





taken from:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/gallup-poll-who-supports-death-penalty

I wonder if he'll have anything to say to that.

Something emotional sure, but fact-based? No.

;)

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who are currently incarcerated in my state who I wouldn't mind to see one more story about in the news (the story about their execution) then never hear their names again. Heinous animals deserve to be forgotten by society, the quickest way is to remove them permanently from society...Reginald and Jonathan Carr, Dennis Rader, Scott Roeder just off the top of my head.

is what kind of moral impairment you have to suffer from to participate in an execution. To kill someone who hasn't hurt you in any way and is powerless to resist just because your boss tells you to? How do you sleep after that?

I mean, who *are* these people?

:thumbsup:

Country hasn't arrived at any satisfactory level of enlightenment. It is a terrible disgrace that we are among the few Countries that continues this barbaric and wrong practice.

:thumbsup:

Not that she is a woman, but her mental capacity is low ~~ that is one issue. The other issue is that the two shooters got life w/o poss of parole. Yes, she was involved in the plot to kill her husband and stepson, but the punishment doled out by the state seems very unequal.

however, be aware that 72 is low but not THAT low. As another said, if she was smart enough to plan something like this, she isnt too low on the IQ scale to be executed. (Again, I OPPOSE the death penalty, just sayin)

such a grand concept for deterring others for doing the same. It's worth it even though so many have been executed wrongfully... just like tasers... so what if some die due to a pre-existing heart condition. The ends justify the means :crazy: :think:

just another example of how human emotion worsens the situation. There is no resolve, not even for the victim's family and friends. Unfortunately once a person is killed, NOTHING will bring them back or quell the pain.

Who in their right mind would do that rather than go to trial?

Someone with a terrible lawyer or someone with diminished capacity to understand.

Still this disgusts me. We are so fucking barbaric in this country. Fucking animals, that's all Americans are.

let's say i planned to hire a murder to profit me and my child or my lover or my dearest friend...if caught, then yah in that case i would take such a plea bargain if i had any soul and wasn't a total complete piece of trash rather than have the other person also lose their life to my stupid plan

penalty. This plea bargain would not be worth it to anyone, since the state gets everything they want.

The step-son had the large insurance policy and she had to get her husband out of the way so she would inherit the step-son's estate via her husband's estate. She pimped out her own 16 yr. old daughter to one of the gunmen to sweeten the deal and she gave them the money to buy the weapons. She was also sleeping with the other gunman.

Lot of important details missing from this article. I'm no huge fan of the death penalty but this looks pretty clear cut to me.

Much better article here> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/23/AR2010092306866.html

Lewis was executed by the state of Virginia, not by the US.

And besides, the federal government allows the states the authority to enact the DP, something it could choose not to.

Unlike most other democracies, our federal government doesn't have all-encompassing power.

And besides, the federal government allows the states the authority to enact the DP, something it could choose not to.

Not without a Constitutional amendment, which would require the consent of 3/4 of the states.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people

ETA to avoid any misunderstandings:

I do now and have always opposed the death penalty.

Didn't something similar happen in the 70's?

I doubt that SCOTUS will ever rule that way. Certainly not with its present composition.

Followed by the sound of tissues being grabbed from the box.

72 IQ is considered fit for trial in VA?

If she's considered fit enough to vote, drive a vehicle and live on her own, she's fit enough to suffer the consequences of her actions.

She understood the difference between right and wrong, she just didn't care. She may have been easily manipulated but that's not a trait that's confined strictly to people with lower intelligence levels.

She was remorseful and living a positive life in jail, and seemingly reformed through the justice system. This on top of all of the questions (is she menatally challenged, what was her role, etc.)