Dead woman walking–Convicted killer Teresa Lewis is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection this Thursday, September 30. If the execution goes through, Lewis will be the first woman to be executed in Virginia since 1912.

Lewis was convicted of killing her husband and stepson for $250,000 in insurance money. Death penalty activists say that Lewis is being treated unfairly because the 2 gunman who killed the victims only got life in prison.

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Lewis, then 33, plotted with her then-22-year-old lover, Matthew Shallenberger, and his friend Rodney Fuller to murder her husband and stepson on Oct. 30, 2002. Killed were Julian Lewis, 51, and C.J. Lewis, 25, a soldier visiting the Lewises’ mobile home.

She was to be the beneficiary of her stepson’s $250,000 life insurance policy should he and her husband die. She left a door unlocked so Shallenberger and Fuller could enter early that morning. The two arrived armed with shotguns paid for by Teresa Lewis. She left the bedroom and waited in the kitchen during the shooting.

The gunfire over and her husband dying, Lewis retrieved his wallet from their bedroom and divided the money with the killers. She waited 45 minutes before calling for help, but Julian Lewis lived long enough to tell a deputy sheriff, “My wife knows who done this to me.”

Teresa Lewis, Shallenberger and Fuller pleaded guilty. The judge sentenced Shallenberger and Fuller to life and Lewis, whom he called “the head of this serpent,” to death.


 

It is reported that Lewis is borderline mentally challenged.  Her lawyer has stated that one of the shooters, who was her boyfriend, took advantage of her handicap.

Groups said to be assisting include the Virginia Catholic Conference; Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty; the Baptist General Association of Virginia; the Central Atlantic Conference of the United Church of Christ; the Virginia Conference of United Methodists; the League of Women Voters; and the Women’s Missionary Union of Virginia.

The Arc of Virginia, an advocacy group for those with intellectual disabilities, also urged McDonnell to commute the sentence to life or to at least order a comprehensive examination of Lewis’ intellectual function. Her attorneys contend her IQ, measured at 70 and 72, means she is borderline mentally retarded.

The execution will take place in Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, VA.

Very few women have been executed in the United States. Governor Bob McDonnell has refused to stay her execution or intervene. It will be up to the Supreme Court to overturn the death penalty in her case.  

Should McDonnell commute her sentence to life in prison because she is almost handicapped?  A woman?  She has said she is sorry.  Should that count?

She isn’t the worst of the worst but darn! How close does one have to get?

19 Thoughts to “Virginia Ready to Fry a Woman”

  1. There will be a woman murder trial going on in PWC soon.

    Paul Ebert will seek the death penalty, his first against a woman.

    (the Russian woman)

    http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2010/sep/17/prosecutors-seek-death-penalty-slayings-mother-son-ar-510970/

  2. marinm

    I don’t know the answer to this but do we still give the chair in Virginia? The word fry in the title drew me.

    I have no issue with her death sentence.

  3. Yes, Old Sparky is still an option. But you are right. She gets put to sleep, not fried. Old habits are hard to break.

    The prisoner can choose to be fried. i have no problem with her death sentence either. I heard her interviewed. No great pangs of guilt jumped out at me to save this woman.

  4. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    I thought we fried a dude last year, or earlier this year, but I didn’t know this lady had chosen injection. I was going to ask what wine goes best with fried woman?

  5. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    I find red wine goes best with battered woman, but fried, that’s a whole different box of frogs, completely!!

  6. Lafayette

    Powell sat in Ole Sparky, for his crimes in Yorkshire.

  7. marinm

    Roger. Have no issue with the chair just didn’t remember if we still used it. Isn’t a Utah execution going to be the first hanging in a good number of years?? I’m not upto date on executions.. 🙁

  8. Utah still has a firing squad if I am not mistaken. I don’t know about hanging.

    Yes, Powell did. He was dumb though. I don’t know who would choose Sparky over being put to sleep.

  9. marinm

    MH, you’re right. Utah executed a man by firing squad this year. Delaware (go O’Donnell!!) had the last hanging in 86 (ref: Wiki).

    I think the most creative form of capital punishment was used in England by securing a human into a coffin like decide with port holes, pouring milk and honey onto his body and leaving him out in that confined device for a week while insects and vermin fed on the condemned till death. What you learn on the History Channel rocks!!

  10. What you can learn on the history channel can also make you hurl.

    Marin, I think you choose candidates just because they are attractive. It cannot be for any other reason. Notice none of the women running are unattractive. That is taking a page out of the Murdock school of thought. Good looks attract votes.

    There is strong evidence that is true btw. Old Joe Kennedy capitalized on that early on in Jack’s campaign. Here was Jack all tan, wearing make up, good looking and on TV, looking like Mr. Prep. Then there was NIxon, and he looked like…Nixon. He wore no make up and was pastey looking.

  11. marinm

    Jack was helped by his disease that made him appear tan and ‘healthy’ looking on tv.

    I wouldn’t vote for Palin or O’Donnell because of looks. That’s a pretty low opinion of you me if you really think that. I think that humans gravitate towards attractive people being in positions of power or influence. Celebs for example. You don’t really see a lot of ugly celebs yet what qualifies any of them to speak about anything other than waiting tables or standing in front of a camera?

    Ever notice that most CEOs are tall? Height is something we gravitate towards as well. People naturally assume that if your tall you’d make a great leader. It’s interesting how that works out. I think Wolverine could probably bring historical insight regarding how society picks leaders.

    If someone says they’ll repeal healthcare, lower taxes and restore the Constitution I’ll vote a vegan witchdoctor on a pink horse into office. I’d vote twice if s/he did it while carrying a rifle. 🙂

  12. Actually, I doubt if O’Donnell would have any idea how to restore the Constitution. I wonder what the Native Americans and blacks would have to say about that. Bet they wouldn’t like it.

    I think I prefer the Constitution as it is better than it was originally. At least I can vote.

    If we went for height we would have a bunch of basketball players running things.

    Youth also factors in, within reason.

    I actually don’t have a low opinion of you as a person. I think it is part of what pleases us as humans…If both people said the same thing and one was attractive and the other was a troll, who would you vote for? Of course, some of us would vote for the troll as a pity or mercy vote.

    I did notice however that Palin and O’Donnell are looking for and more alike. Angle has sort of the same look other than she appears older.

  13. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    Utah still has a firing squad if I am not mistaken. I don’t know about hanging.
    Yes, Powell did. He was dumb though. I don’t know who would choose Sparky over being put to sleep.

    Thrill-Seekers, and they’re all over the place. Some people thinks it’s cool to “ride the lightning”!

  14. A thrill of a lifetime. You don’t get to do it but once though.

  15. marinm

    Oh come on Pinko. That was funny. 🙂

  16. I expect that pervert Powell thought it made him more of a man.

  17. Wolverine

    O.K., Marinm. “Tall” it shall be. I would say that tallness makes an initial impression in a room but that it seldom carries the day by itself. George Washington was tall for his day. Fine. But what I think made Washington in the eyes of many was his physical build to go with that tallness, the way he carried himself, his natural “gravitas”, and the quiet aura of a natural sense of command. Lincoln was also tall. But he was thin and gangly, walked with a bit of a shoulder stoop at times, and often made himself look slightly ridiculous by wearing such a tall, stovepipe hat. Moreover, he was far from being a handsome man. As I recall, his very tallness, along with certain other personal characteristics, made him a prime target of political cartoonists and wags. Remember the photos of Lincoln in the field visiting his generals? Looked sort of like the old Mutt and Jeff cartoons.

    What really has interested me more is how short men have managed to become “giants” in their worlds — men like James Madison, Stephen Douglas, and Napoleon Bonaparte. This is one I have found most interesting. J. Edgar Hoover was a short man. He was also very ambitious and determined — virtually a maniac in that regard. What he chose to compensate for his lack of physical stature was the acquisition of debating skills. He decided that the best way to bring down an opponent was to concentrate on the smallest foibles and errors in an opponent’s presentation and then chop him to bits by using those foibles and errors to undermine the guy’s whole case. He practiced that technique during his whole career. Moreover, he added to his arsenal a determination to know all about his political opponents, especially those things which the opponents would have preferred to keep very private. And he used them freely whenever he felt they were necessary to carry the day for him. He even used them to keep presidents from firing him. Finally, Hoover developed a method of talking very fast so that you had to be on your toes to keep up with him. He made you forget that he was a short guy.

    In his biography of Hoover, Curt Gentry opined that Hoover reached a psychological state in which he considered himself to have overcome all the imperfections in his own character. A consequence of that was that he had a very low level of tolerance for anyone, including his own staff and agents, when he judged them to be not strong enough to imitate himself in that regard. He became, in effect, a short egomaniac with immense power.

    But, there was one thing which he found he could not overcome through personality or toughness. He was still short, and he apparently felt it was a public image handicap. According to Gentry, Crime Records, the FBI’s public relations office, was given a specific response to any query about Hoover’s height: “The Director is just a shade under six feet tall.” But there was more. In Hoover’s inner office, they built a raised dais behind his desk. Moreover, Hoover avoided being near tall people if at all possible at any public function. And, finally, it became very hard for a tall FBI agent to be assigned to Headquarters. Illusions, illusions, illusions.

    In 1953, Colliers magazine printed an article critical of Hoover. It was the first journalistic implication that Hoover might be homosexual, citing his age, his unmarried state, his seldom being seen with women, and the fact that he had lived for years with his mother. According to the Colliers writer, Hooover was “short, fat, businesslike, and walks with a mincing step.” Hoover blew a gasket at this description and reportedly started taking longer strides when he walked.

    Years later, a former Hoover aide was given the Colliers article to reread. His response was that the article was not entirely correct. According to this aide, Hoover neither minced his steps nor his words. Hoover was, indeed, short, squat, and had the smallest feet one might ever see on a man. But he walked purposely like he talked — fast. Said that aide: “When he was coming down the hall toward you he looked like a locomotive on a straight track. You knew he wasn’t going to deviate one inch, so you automatically stepped aside.”

    The aide also added a tidbit that made me chuckle personally. “But when you saw him from behind, the effect was entirely different. His bottom — well, it sort of bounced. You tried your best not to look, not to notice, because, well, one, he was the director, and two, God preserve you if you laughed.”

    Love him or hate him, that seems to be the story of how one short guy made himself tall.

  18. Iranian pres whose name I am not going to try to spell is trying to relate Teresa Lewis case to the woman who was to be stone for adultry.

    Apparently he doesn’t see the difference in double murder and adultry.

    This Lewis met the killers in a line at Walmart and exchange sex and money with them to off her husband and stepson. She also rifled through the pockets of the murdered for money etc. Class act.

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