Saturday, September 25, 2010

Death row

These thoughts are mine. They may be shared by many but I am speaking for myself. If you are offended, it was not intentional. If you continually get offended by my positions and opinions, you should change, I doubt I will.

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010


I wish a few more murderers and rapists lived or at least got caught in Virginia. Virginia put a female to death on Thursday evening. Her name was Teresa Lewis. She was the first woman put to death in the United States 2005 and the first woman Virginia executed since 1912. The 41 year old woman paid two men to kill her husband and stepson in 2002 for $250,000.00 in life insurance proceeds. The life insurance policy covered the stepson.

The stepson entered the United States Army Reserve in 2000, two years before his father married his eventual murderer. When he was called to active duty in 2002 to serve his country, he purchased the life insurance policy. He named his father as the beneficiary. Lewis had to kill the stepson to kick the insurance benefits in. She then had to kill her husband so he was not around to collect the benefits. As the surviving spouse, it is not clear if a Will was involved, she would receive his estate, including the $250,000.00.

Lewis convinced two men to kill her husband and stepson by paying them with sex, drugs and a promise of a portion of the insurance money. She arranged for the men to have sex with her 16 year old daughter in a mall parking lot as part of the payment.

On October 30, 2002, Lewis slept with her husband. The stepson was staying with them in their house trailer. As her husband and stepson slept peacefully in their beds, Lewis let the two other killers into the trailer who shot the men with the two shotguns Lewis had purchased for them.

The two shooters received life in prison. One of them committed suicide in 2006. That saved the State of Virginia a bunch of money.

As with many death row inmates, Lewis found God in prison, although she did practice her religion off and on throughout her life. I didn’t know God was missing or I might have been looking for him myself. Who knew he was living in a Virginia prison

Virginia, which is only behind Texas in the number of executions it performs, received over 7,300 appeals for Lewis’s life. Obviously they were turned down. The Courts refused to intervene. It is good to see the Courts get out of the way. Lewis was convicted and sentenced under Virginia law. The Courts only job is to make sure her Constitutional rights were not infringed. If they weren’t, and they weren’t, the Courts have no business overriding the will of the people. Courts should interpret and enforce the laws, not make the law. That is what we have legislators for. Activist Judges are always trying to make law from the bench when they realize it will not happen at the ballot box. This puts the power of the entire electorate into the hands of one person who is well paid, has excellent benefits, plenty of paid time off and a great pension plan. Not exactly your average Joe 6-pack.

Teresa Lewis was the eleventh woman put to death in the United States since 1976, when the United States Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty. Over 1,200 people have been executed during that time period.

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BRUCE A. BRENNAN