On September 23rd, 2010 a woman, was stretched out on a duree to have her arm punctured with a lethal cocktail of chemicals designed to stop a working, healthy heart. This scence that played itself out in Greensville Corectional Center sent shock waves across the world. For one, this incident put the USA in the same league as Iran, China and sundry other countries which routinely carry out executions and impose the death penalty even on women. I must say that I do not think that a criminal who takes another human being's life deserves mercy so my position is not that of a liberal who oppose the death peanlty on the round thatthe state does not have the right to tke life. My position is based on the facts ofthis particular case as I have been able to glean from sources accessible to me. Nor I am interested in the huge question whether the lethal injection method of excecution is a "cruel and unusual punishment" the constitutionality of which the US Supreme Court will eventually decide.
The woman who was killed on September 23 rd 2010, Tresa Lewis, was aged around 45 and by all accounts seemed to be the victim of circumstances. Her mental abilities were extremely restricted and even the Court found that she had an IQ of around 70 making her a prime candidate for defence under the "diminished respomsibility" condition. Yet the Court found her guilty, awarded her the capital punishment and even theGovernor did not intervene to stop her excecution. I think the justice was seriously compromised in this particular case.
The facts are simple. Tresa Lewis was married to Julian for the second time and her husband had a son and both had good insurance policies to their credit. Apparently at the instigation of Mathew Shallenberger and his accomplice Rodney Fuller, Tresa Lewis allowed both these men to enter her house on October 2, 2002 and the husband and step son were shot dead. At first the woman and her accomplices made it appear as ifthe killing had taken place during a break in and robbery. Shallenberger who actually killed the two men was give only life in prison and he subsequently killed himself.
When it is clear that Tresa Lewis did not pull the trigger and her possessedonly extremely limited moral and intellectual ability, I wonder on what grounds the death penalty was imposed. There is no doubt that she facilitated the crime but she did not actually carry out the killing and therefore under the law she cannot be guilty of a capital offence.