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Virginia: First Female Execution Since 1912

By Jeralyn, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Sun Sep 12, 2010 at 12:58:27 PM EST
Tags: Teresa Lewis, Virginia, death penalty (all tags)
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Teresa Lewis didn't pull the trigger. She confessed, pleaded guilty and cooperated with authorities. She has an IQ of 70, right on the border of mental retardation. She has no prior criminal record, and no prior history of violence. The triggermen in the murder got life without parole. Yet she's scheduled to die by lethal injection. She is the first female sentenced to death in Virginia since 1912.

John Grisham weighs in. A writer in the Sydney Morning Herald says Iran does not have a monopoly on barbarism and reminds the U.S. that humanity begins at home.

The execution is set for September 23. Save Teresa Lewis. More here.

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    Virginia: First Female Execution Since 1912 | 5 comments (5 topical)

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    There is something (5.00 / 3) (#1)
    by JamesTX on Sun Sep 12, 2010 at 02:54:46 PM EST
    fundamentally flawed about a system where the triggerman gets less than an conspirator who obviously has very limited conspiratorial capacity.

    There is something fundamentally (5.00 / 2) (#3)
    by jondee on Sun Sep 12, 2010 at 04:23:09 PM EST
    flawed in the national psyche in this country. And it's probably connected, on some barely conscious level, to some blood-for-blood, blood-expiation, emotional complex..which results in making homicides, executions -- and even reflexive, belligerent military responses, for far too many, in too many situations, the all-too-natural "first response".

    Exacerbating this is the pronounced tendency of our leaders, who are expected to set the the tone of the national discussion, to market themselves to the populace by appealing to the more reflexive, primitive instincts, the way beer companies use wet tee shirts to sell their product. Revenge and stuffing society's mistakes and monsters down the memory hole (where we don't have to think about them too much) are good for business for the "tough on crime" crowd.

       

    Parent

    I read all of these (5.00 / 4) (#2)
    by sj on Sun Sep 12, 2010 at 04:02:01 PM EST
    though I rarely comment on them.  It all just makes me so sad.

    From The Devils' Disciple (none / 0) (#4)
    by Harry Saxon on Sun Sep 12, 2010 at 04:40:00 PM EST

    THE CHAPLAIN (gently reproving Richard). Try to control yourself, and submit to the divine will. (He lifts his book to proceed with the service.)

    RICHARD. Answer for your own will, sir, and those of your accomplices here (indicating Burgoyne and Swindon): I see little divinity about them or you. You talk to me of Christianity when you are in the act of hanging your enemies. Was there ever such blasphemous nonsense! (To Swindon, more rudely) You've got up the solemnity of the occasion, as you call it, to impress the people with your own dignity--Handel's music and a clergyman to make murder look like piety! Do you suppose I am going to help you? You've asked me to choose the rope because you don't know your own trade well enough to shoot me properly. Well, hang away and have done with it.

    SWINDON (to the chaplain). Can you do nothing with him, Mr. Brudenell?

    CHAPLAIN. I will try, sir. (Beginning to read) Man that is born of woman hath--

    RICHARD (fixing his eyes on him). "Thou shalt not kill."

    The book drops in Brudenell's hands.

    Click Me

    Grisham's Law (none / 0) (#5)
    by diogenes on Sun Sep 12, 2010 at 10:17:18 PM EST
    Bad logic drives out good.  How is executing someone for conspiracy to murder equal to executing someone for adultery?  And another logical explanation is that the triggerman also deserved the death penalty.  
    Just come out and say that you oppose the death penalty for anyone (including a repeat serial pedophile torturer-killer or someone who murders someone while in Supermax) because you find the death penalty to be morally wrong.  Convince the majority of the country of this and laws will be passed eliminating the death penalty.  Convince the majority in 38 states and you can have a constitutional amendment.

    Virginia: First Female Execution Since 1912 | 5 comments (5 topical)

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