This week, Teresa Lewis was executed by injection in the state of Virginia, a so-called "Pro Life" state. Lewis was the first woman to be put to death since 1912, in this state which has executed more people than any other state with the exception of Texas.
The Associated Press described Lewis's last moments this way:
"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.
Moments before her execution, Lewis asked if her husband's daughter — her stepdaughter — was near. Kathy Clifton was in an adjacent witness room blocked from the inmate's view by a two-way mirror.
"I want Kathy to know that I love her and I'm very sorry," Lewis said.
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.
More than 7,300 appeals to stop the execution had been made to the governor in a state second only to Texas in the number of people it executes."
Lewis had been found guilty of paying off two hired gunmen to murder her husband and her stepson so she could collect on a $250,000 insurance policy. She plied the hired assassins with sex and a promise of a share in the insurance money. She has been described by attorneys and experts as mentally disabled and of borderline intelligence. In life, and in prison up until her execution, she was said to have a strong belief in God, and she had a reputation for singing hymns and praying aloud all her adult life. The two men who actually did the shooting did not get death sentences but life in prison. One subsequently committed suicide.
Teresa's attorney was quoted during her final hours as saying, "We thought that we were supposed to be helping her, while she was actually helping us." He said that in the days before her death, she laughed, sang and prayed — for everybody.
Virginia is a "Pro Life" state with a prominently touted "respect for human life" and a rigid rejection of all women's right to choose where reproductive freedom is concerned. Governor Bob Mc Donnell is a staunch anti-abortion lawmaker, and in the Virginia legislature, the House is designated anti-choice while the state Senate gets a mixed-choice ranking by NARAL. That pro-choice lobby also gives the state of Virginia an "F" grade for reproductive freedom.
In Washington, Virginia's congressional delegation consists of 2 pro-choice US Senators and 6 out of 11 Representatives who oppose abortion rights because of their alleged, "respect for human life."
Apparently the life of a fetus is of greater concern to all these lawmakers than the life of 41-year-old Teresa Lewis, who committed a heinous crime, but also paid the highest price in a state that would rather kill her than give her a life sentence.
The biblical "eye for an eye" has too often been misinterpreted as "a life for a life" by the very groups in the USA who claim to value human life. Of the more than 7300 appeals made to Governor Mc Connell to stop this execution, some came from international levels as high as the European Union where the death penalty has long been abandoned as archaic, uncivilized and wrong while abortion rights have been granted-- even in Catholic countries like Italy, seat of the Vatican.
The contradiction between support for fetal rights and the rejection of the "right to life" for adult human beings guilty of crimes has always been a puzzlement.
The execution of Teresa Lewis is just one more reminder of how selective, hypocritical and misogynistic the anti-choice lobby and its political and religious leaders can be.
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photo: NY Daily News
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Comments
The level of hypocrisy at work among politicians, bureaucrats and everyday citizens in this country is truly stunning.
To us men feminism is the opposite of misogyny. Feminism is misandry and is being rejected by more and more humans the world over and rightfully so!
Federal statistics have proven women are equally as violent as men and just as likely to commit violent crimes and should be punished accordingly.
Please expect more women on death row thanks to misandry or its cover title of feminism.
Also be aware that as more women become misandrists thanks to the proliferation of feminism, you can naturally expect more men to NOT like it and respond accordingly, so feminism/misandry actually increases the likelihood of growing problems between men and women and more than likely is a provocative cause for some of the violence and it should be ruthlessly punished on both sides.
I fully support the death penalty and I am of the opinion that a murderer is kept alive at the tax payers' expense for way too long.
Tell me, would any of your misandrists support letting Ailene Wournos go for her crimes? To hear some of you man haters tell it they deserved it.
There are three sides to a coin. Yours is not the only side and yours is not the only side that matters.
misandry is a source of misogyny. Think about it. Feminism is turning men against you in growing numbers.
So what is the solution now? An endless sex war where the division between men and women grows so large it can never be bridged together again?
Get real ladies! Laughable!
Virginia will not wait another 100 years before excuting another woman because feminism is creating a new breed of female killers, not to mention growing numbers of them.
Casey Anthony is a perfect example of a modern day misandrist feminist who only wanted to party and screw more men than she could count and she probably does not even know who the daddy is of her murdered child she killed so she could continue partying in her slutty ways.
God help us!
The actual assassins of the husband and step son did not get the death penalty (as Bonnie says, "Raise your hand who's surprised")
Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller were sentenced to life in prison for shooting the men in their beds. Authorities said Lewis was the mastermind and that the three were to share in the proceeds from her stepson’s life-insurance policy and her husband’s estate.
Shallenberger committed suicide in 2006 while an inmate at Wallens Ridge State Prison.
American Patriot - you may not be aware of this, but there are actually MEN who call themselves feminists...because they believe in the rights of women to equal treatment. As far as the gulf between women and men like you...I think it is already too wide to be bridged. (Frankly, most of us aren't even wasting our time trying to approach men who think the way you do for any rational debate)...so, yes, God Bless You.
To all the rest, thanks for taking the time to comment and rate.
This woman certainly doesn't fit any definition I can think of for "most malignant" and the fact that the actual killers didn't get the death penalty demonstrates how very badly it's usually done.
How very sad.
I'm obviously with the rest of you who "don't get it" on this one.
Thanks for the reads and comments.
American Patriot, I find your comments lacking in thoughfulness and insight, and quite frankly I question your sanity. Good luck...
Another thing: Teresa Lewis had an IQ of 72, and my understaqnding is that she did not do the actual murders, but paid for them. Iran criticized her execution as hypocrisy when Americans turn around and protest stoning women to death in Iran.
I'm reminded of Charles Dickens' comments after his visit to the United States in the 1850s. He said that all Americans talked about was their "freedom" and their "great nation".......while practicing slavery.