VA - Teresa Lewis, First Woman Executed in the U.S. in Five Years

Gozgals

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First Woman Executed in the U.S. in Five Years

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/23/womans-execution-nears-virginia/?test=latestnews


She killed her husband and stepson for insurance money. How horrible and so full of greed. May the victims Rest in Peace.

Snip
The first woman executed in the United States in five years was put to death in Virginia on Thursday for arranging the killings of her husband and a stepson over a $250,000 insurance payment.

Teresa Lewis, 41, died by injection at 9:13 p.m. Thursday, authorities said. She became the first woman executed in Virginia in nearly a century. Supporters and relatives of the victims watched her execution at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.
 
From what I have read, she wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. One of the arguments used against her execution was her diminished mental capacity.
I am not a big fan of the death penalty but there are cases that warrent it- and hiring someone to kill your husband and stepson for money crosses that line.
 
Read in several articles that she was borderline mentally retarded. Also some of the others involved called her the mastermind behind the murders. Which I cant believe. I wonder if it was easier to blame her then to prove her actual role in the murder. Should she have been sent to jail for a very long time, Yes i do think so, but not so sure if she should have been executed.

Atleast she was injected instead of old sparky.. May her victims rest in peace
 
But she knew right from wrong ..............she knew what she was doing and for money.......
 
This is the worse part.........to me, praying and then the slaughter!

She met at a Walmart with the two men who ultimately killed Julian Lewis and his son. Lewis began an affair with Matthew Shallenberger and later had sex with the other triggerman, Rodney Fuller. She also arranged sex with Fuller and her daughter, who was 16, in a parking lot.

On the night before Halloween in 2002, after she prayed with her husband, Lewis got out of bed, unlocked the door to their mobile home and put the couple's pit bull in a bedroom so the animal wouldn't interfere. Shallenberger and Fuller came in and shot both men several times with the shotguns Lewis had bought for them.
 
She knew what she was doing IMO and got what she deserved.
 
Why aren't the triggermen given the same penalty?
 
Why aren't the triggermen given the same penalty?

I'm trying to find this out. I have a link below but they just call her the Mastermind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Lewis

Snip
Her two accomplices, Matthew Jessee Shallenberger, then 21, and his former roommate and friend Rodney Lamont Fuller, then 19, were sentenced to life terms at their separate trials. Schallenberger committed suicide in prison in 2006. A judge deemed Lewis the crime's mastermind and called her "the head of this serpent". Lewis' IQ has been measured as low as 70.[6] Lewis' daughter, Christie Lynn Bean, served five years because she knew about the plan but remained silent.[7]

Goz
 
I've had mixed feelings about this case. The triggermen who actually did the deed did not get the death sentence. She was the mastermind and was put to death. Who made those men pull the trigger? They did, and deserve the same punishment. I think (personally and MOO) that her sentence should have been the same as the guys who pulled the trigger.

People can talk to you until their blue in the face - does that make you a robot, a hit man? One of the 2 should have turned her in, but nooooo they went ahead and did it.

She's crazy, yes, but did she deserve the death penalty? I don't believe so.

Again, JMO

Mel
 
Her father said she ran off to get married, then later abandoned her children and ran off with her sister's husband. Then she had an affair with her sister's fiance while at the same time having an affair with another man.

She obviously didn't have a problem betraying her own sister in the worst possible way!! Not once, but twice!! This here tells me that she had no problem inflicting pain on others.

According to the article, she knew what she was doing. She was a 33-year-old woman who led two much younger boys (20 and 19) to commit murder for her. This isn't the first time something like this has happened and older men have led much younger women to murder also and everyone blames the older man for what the younger girls did. I hate double standards.

MOO!
 
A comparison would be the Pamela Smart case but she got life and they all got different sentences.

I am wondering if one of the triggermen turned evidence on her?

Sidenote: She certainly had a very active sex life..and it really got to me how she tried to give her daughter to one of the shooters..

Goz
 
A comparison would be the Pamela Smart case but she got life and they all got different sentences.

I am wondering if one of the triggermen turned evidence on her?

Sidenote: She certainly had a very active sex life..and it really got to me how she tried to give her daughter to one of the shooters..

Goz

For what it's worth -

Three Defendants – Only One Sentenced to Death. Even though Teresa confessed her role in the killings and identified Shallenberger and Fuller as the gunmen, the prosecutor did not take her cooperation into account. Instead, he sought the death penalty. The prosecutor struck a quick deal with one of the triggermen, Fuller, to recommend a life sentence for him in exchange for his cooperation. This led the judge to sentence the other triggerman, Shallenberger, to life in prison as well, because the judge thought it unfair that one triggerman should get the death penalty when the other received a life sentence.

linky: http://www.saveteresalewis.org/story.html

Since this is a save teresa web-site, it's always going to be for the defendant. But from what I read, she confessed her role and told LE about the shooters.

Hugs,

Mel
 
I personally would like to go back through the case from the beginning before I make a judgment against this woman. Not that I believe what she did was right in any means, but it says she was next to being mentally retarded. I remember being 15 or 16 and convincing a 43 yr old woman it would be COOL to skip down main street.She had 9 kids in all mostly from men convincing her it was right and they loved her. They were after sex, I was after a laugh. Im not proud of that now but at the time it was funny. I still spend time with her now trying to help her make the right decisions in her life, but believe me if I was a different person I could convince her to do anything. It just makes me wonder if someone didnt put the thought in her mind and she took it for gospel. Why were the men who actually did the killing let off on a lesser charge? Too many questions in my mind and not enough answers????MOO
 
I personally would like to go back through the case from the beginning before I make a judgment against this woman. Not that I believe what she did was right in any means, but it says she was next to being mentally retarded. I remember being 15 or 16 and convincing a 43 yr old woman it would be COOL to skip down main street.She had 9 kids in all mostly from men convincing her it was right and they loved her. They were after sex, I was after a laugh. Im not proud of that now but at the time it was funny. I still spend time with her now trying to help her make the right decisions in her life, but believe me if I was a different person I could convince her to do anything. It just makes me wonder if someone didnt put the thought in her mind and she took it for gospel. Why were the men who actually did the killing let off on a lesser charge? Too many questions in my mind and not enough answers????MOO

I couldnt have said it better, That is what im thinking happened, somewhere along the line it was put into motion and if she was Close to mentally impared then I could guess she believed everyone was her "FRIEND" and they wouldnt hurt her and knew what was best.
 
I'm trying to find this out. I have a link below but they just call her the Mastermind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Lewis

Snip
Her two accomplices, Matthew Jessee Shallenberger, then 21, and his former roommate and friend Rodney Lamont Fuller, then 19, were sentenced to life terms at their separate trials. Schallenberger committed suicide in prison in 2006. A judge deemed Lewis the crime's mastermind and called her "the head of this serpent". Lewis' IQ has been measured as low as 70.[6] Lewis' daughter, Christie Lynn Bean, served five years because she knew about the plan but remained silent.[7]

Goz

thanks for that Goz -- but somehow this is 'lost' on me - just cuz she masterminded it, both fellows had the opportunity 'not to commit' the crime of murder.
 
Her father said she ran off to get married, then later abandoned her children and ran off with her sister's husband. Then she had an affair with her sister's fiance while at the same time having an affair with another man.

She obviously didn't have a problem betraying her own sister in the worst possible way!! Not once, but twice!! This here tells me that she had no problem inflicting pain on others.

According to the article, she knew what she was doing. She was a 33-year-old woman who led two much younger boys (20 and 19) to commit murder for her. This isn't the first time something like this has happened and older men have led much younger women to murder also and everyone blames the older man for what the younger girls did. I hate double standards.

MOO!

She sounds more borderline personality than borderline retarded IMO.
 
"Tonight the death machine exterminated the beautiful childlike and loving spirit of Teresa Lewis," said her lawyer, James Rocap.


Ugh. Well James, if that's a loving spirit ...
 
This is the worse part.........to me, praying and then the slaughter!

She met at a Walmart with the two men who ultimately killed Julian Lewis and his son. Lewis began an affair with Matthew Shallenberger and later had sex with the other triggerman, Rodney Fuller. She also arranged sex with Fuller and her daughter, who was 16, in a parking lot.

On the night before Halloween in 2002, after she prayed with her husband, Lewis got out of bed, unlocked the door to their mobile home and put the couple's pit bull in a bedroom so the animal wouldn't interfere. Shallenberger and Fuller came in and shot both men several times with the shotguns Lewis had bought for them.

I can see both sides of the argument as to whether or not she should have been executed, but it certainly seems that she understood what she was doing, through the preparations she took that night. I wonder if she had the comprehension that death is forever?

Westsidefox64, thank you for your candidness in relating your story to us, as it caused me to think outside the box on what my opinion is.
 
I can see both sides of the argument as to whether or not she should have been executed, but it certainly seems that she understood what she was doing, through the preparations she took that night. I wonder if she had the comprehension that death is forever?

Westsidefox64, thank you for your candidness in relating your story to us, as it caused me to think outside the box on what my opinion is.

Thanks Sunnie. I too see both sides of the arguement in regard to whether she should have been excuted or not. I do not understand when it comes to the fact, (as seen in other cases too) of not giving the triggermen the same sentences. I usually assume it is because they roll over.

I don't believe that many in our world have the comprehension that death is forever until they have to face it. I think she may have been immature as we know, evil but probably never counted on having to face death when in her planning stages. In reality though, death was (IMO) understood on a cognitive and intellectual level.


Goz
 

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