On Thursday, a September 23 execution date was scheduled for Theresa Wilson Lewis. In 2003, she pleaded guilty to masterminding the October 2002 murders of her husband and stepson in Pittsylvania County.
Reading the details of her crime, you can't help thinking this must be one of them hillbilly heroin kinda gals, one of them white trash folks right from the trailer park. The details are incredibly lurid, complete with pimping herself and her daughter to the killers as partial payment.
But, do we really want to continue executing people like this? Is the claim that addiction and mental instability played a mitigating role so absurd that it should be eliminated from the equation?
Someone who is capable of doing this crime, despite her pill addiction and dependency on men, or whatever else she had, perhaps should not be free. But putting these sick members of our society down with a lethal injection makes our entire society sicker.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
"But putting these sick members of our society down with a lethal injection makes our entire society sicker."
ReplyDeleteHow so?
It is a shame she didn't have Superlawyer Laci. He can get anyone off so that they can commit crimes again.
ReplyDeleteAztecRed asks how does capital punishment make our society sicker.
ReplyDeleteIt's premeditated murder, that's how. State sanctioned premeditated murder diminishes the moral health of a society. Pragmatic rationalizations of why it's necessary notwithstanding, I don't believe the state has a right to decide this.