Is Teresa Lewis an unusual death row case?

Virginia is due to execute a woman, the first in the US state since 1912 and the first anywhere in the country for five years. But why is the execution of a woman such a significant event?

It's been a while since an execution has made so much news here in the U.S.A.

Teresa Lewis's planned execution has been publicised everywhere from the UK to Iran. Her case is unusual for three reasons. Lewis plotted with two men to kill her husband and stepson, leaving the door of their home open and buying guns and ammunition for the killers. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death. The gunmen Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller only received life sentences. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote Prof Victor Streib With Lewis's IQ measured at just 72, both her current legal team and death penalty opponents have suggested it is wrong to execute her and wrong to think she is like

Pretty sick mind if you ask me..she deserves what she gets ...

"Women tend to kill a member of the family. Men are much more likely [than women] to be involved in a stranger killing," says Prof Strieb.

This might help explain how someone like Lewis could be sentenced to death.


* In 1955, the hanging of Ruth Ellis in the UK for shooting her lover helped spur opposition to the death penalty, leading to its abolition in the 1960s
* In the same year in the US, the execution of Barbara Graham was also very high profile, with the movie I Want to Live throwing a spotlight on the death penalty.

"There is a kind of a play on the notion that you expect women to protect the family and she is paying to get rid of the family," argues Prof Streib.

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The key piece of evidence they wanted considered was a letter from Shallenberger, who killed himself in jail in 2006, in which he claimed full responsibility for the murder plot and suggests he pushed Lewis into it.

S ource

I don't agree with the death penalty and it saddens me that this woman will become the fourth person in this sorry story to lose their life.

reply to post by baddmove


Significant in that she did not kill anyone. She facilitated the crime but the murders received life. A bit lopsided IMO. Just another dead body to add to the story.

There seems to be a bias amongst men against putting a woman to death.

Anyone remember Aileen Carol Wuornos? Convicted of the murders of six men, but suspected of far more, she was executed in Florida in 2002.

In the past 100 years, over 40 women have been executed in the U.S, including 11 since 1976.

As of January 1, 2010 there were 61 women on death row in the US.

Women murder too. Even if only by proxy sometimes, but just as guilty as the triggermen.

At least the Death Penalty ensures no repeat offenders, male or female.

I don't feel sorry for the witch one bit.

She took advantage of their trust and had them killed. Why shouldn't she get what she deserves?

She's got about 20 more minutes on this earth before she meets her maker and receives her punishment.

God speed.

The 41-year-old Lewis died by lethal injection at 9:13 pm. Relatives of the victims watched through two-way glass, as supporters gathered outside the prison to protest the execution.

The Associated Press writes:

Lewis appeared fearful, her jaw clenched, as she was escorted into the death chamber. She glanced tensely around at 14 assembled corrections officials before being bound to a gurney with heavy leather straps. Then, as the drugs flowed into her body, her feet bobbed but she otherwise remained motionless. A guard lightly tapped her on the shoulder reassuringly as she slipped into death.

www.opposingviews.com...

double post ugh

I agree with damn_ummmm

The woman was retarded..........She should have been put into a institution with no chance of parole or of ever getting out.

But Ronald Regan closed 90% of the state mental institutions..........this is the effect.

So many cruel hard hearted people.

What about Bush and his weapons of mass destruction................he indirectly has killed 106,954 www.iraqbodycount.org... And that's not counting the 3,000 on 911 he was probably indirectly responsible for.

The only people that are murdered by the state are individuals that cannot afford a good enough lawyer..........................they are poor and for the most part not very bright.

The real monsters are the leaders that manipulate the rest of you.

Murder is murder. Those of you saying "good ridence" are on the exact same level as who you are condemning, you just don't see it.

Capital punishment is wrong
United States needs to abolish death penalty sentence
By Ryan Hanschen

Published: Monday, February 23, 2004 - Updated: Monday, May 18, 2009 16:05

The death penalty in the United States is an inherently flawed punishment, wrought with class and racial biases.

It is a cruel and unusual punishment that does not act as a deterrent, costs more than a life sentence and, above all, is an abuse of human rights. There has never been a conclusive study that proves that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to crime.

The facts speak for themselves: "Consistent with previous years, the 2002 FBI Uniform Crime Report shows that the South repeatedly has the highest murder rate. The South accounts for over 80 percent of executions. The Northeast, which has less than one percent of all executions in the United States, again had the lowest murder rate."

Not only do the numbers disprove theories of deterrence, but a 1995 Hart Research Poll of police chiefs in the U.S. found that the majority of the [police] chiefs do not believe that the death penalty is an effective law enforcement tool.

Many citizens who support the death penalty claim that executing their fellow citizens is cheaper than imprisoning criminals for life. The facts prove contrary.

"It is three times more costly to execute a prisoner than it is to keep them in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years," according to The New Press. In Texas, "sending a killer to death row costs an average of $2.3 million," reports the Dallas Morning News.

Because of the vast appeals process, capital punishment is quite cost ineffective. Despite the appeals process, capital punishment is faulty in nature, as it relies on the fallible nature of human beings. Room for human error is huge. According to The Nation, "Between 1973 and 1995, seven out of 10 death-penalty cases were thrown out on appeal due to flaws in the trial."

Is this justice being served?

Countless studies have proven that the death penalty in the United States is riddled with bias - not only in class injustices, but also in racial injustices. The facts speak for themselves -- Amnesty International reports that "95 percent of all people sentenced to death in the United States could not afford their own attorney."

Source: www.duclarion.com...

We have two lawyers in our family, one for many years dealt with Criminal Law and the other is a State Prosecuter. They have both said that here in America, if you have enough money you can easily get away with murder............only the poor and mentally challenged end up on death row.

death row views touchy subject, We all must die someday of our physical bodies and where our spirit decides to remain is our destiny of birth.

Touchy for me cause i have had to be the other half in a relationship with a girl that was involved in a double murder in florida in 1986 and she was up for getting electrocuted in raiford state prison in lake butler cause her two accomplishes turned evidence against her and she was jus there at wrong time trying to get a fix for us. the impact of watching her on the stand and seeing her torment really put a screw in my demeanor. thank god we had the opportunity to do out of body with one another before and after the execution, she is buried in my spirit and speaks to me in dreams. so to be a woman on death row its living hell and does project upon others lives in human history of evolution