In Virginia, a Woman on the Verge of Execution
In Virginia, a Woman on the Verge of Execution
After midnight on Oct. 30, 2002, two men crept into an unlocked trailer in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. A family of three was sleeping. Toting shotguns, the intruders roused Teresa Lewis, now 40, and told her to leave the bedroom she shared with her husband Julian. One of the men shot Julian several times. The other intruder stalked down the hall and put five bullets into Julian’s son, C.J., a U.S. Army reservist. The intruders divvied up the cash in Julian’s wallet and fled the trailer. About 45 minutes later, Teresa Lewis called the police to report that her husband and stepson had been killed. But when the police arrived, Julian Lewis was still alive. Among his last words was an ominous accusation: “My wife knows who done this to me.”
She did. As detailed in court documents, Teresa Lewis had paid the shooters — Matthew Shallenberger, 22, and Rodney Fuller, 19 — to kill her husband and stepson. Some murders are spurred by sex and others by money; in this one it was both. After meeting the pair at a local Walmart, Lewis started an affair with Shallenberger. In return for killing Julian and C.J. Lewis, Teresa promised to split her stepson’s $250,000 life-insurance policy with the two men, and she fronted $1,200 in cash to buy the guns and ammunition with which her family would be executed. In May 2003, after waiving her right to a trial, Lewis pleaded guilty to seven offenses, including two counts of murder for hire. A judge, deeming Lewis the crime’s mastermind — “the head of this serpent,” as he put it — sentenced her to death by lethal injection. The triggermen, who also pleaded guilty, were given life sentences. (See the debate on lethal injection as a method of execution.)
Barring the U.S. Supreme Court’s intervention or a decision by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to grant clemency, on Sept. 23 Lewis will become the first woman executed by the commonwealth in 98 years, and just the 12th overall since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1976. No one disputes her guilt, or the heinousness of her crime. Whether she should be put to death for it is a murkier matter.
Lewis’ lawyers have offered several reasons for why her sentence should be lightened, including tests that show Lewis is on the cusp of mental retardation. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that executing mentally retarded prisoners violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. But Virginia does not consider prisoners mentally handicapped unless they score significantly below the mean on an IQ test and struggle to function in society. Lewis — who scored as low as 70 — hasn’t qualified in the eyes of appeals courts. In addition to her poor cognitive abilities, says Lewis’ current lawyer Jim Rocap, she was addled by an addiction to prescription painkillers at the time of the killings, a condition that Rocap says contributed to her apparent lack of remorse. (According to the court documents, she began inquiring about redeeming her husband’s paycheck and stepson’s life-insurance policy, for example, just hours after the murders.) (See the 25 crimes of the century.)
Some medical experts also determined that Lewis suffered from a dependent-personality disorder, which left her particularly susceptible to manipulation by men. Rocap, who has represented Lewis since 2004, argues that Lewis was exploited by Shallenberger, who tested as considerably more intelligent and penned a 2003 letter to an associate stating that he had struck up an affair with Lewis to “get her to ‘fall in love’ with me so she would give me the insurance money.” (Shallenberger committed suicide in 2006.) “Nobody who has personal knowledge of their relationship disputes that he was the leader, the person controlling Teresa,” Rocap says. But Lewis’ trial lawyers declined to address this point during the sentencing phase of the case, and appellate law limits the type of evidence that can be introduced during habeas hearings.
In deciding whether to grant clemency, Governor McDonnell can consider a range of mitigating circumstances, including the Shallenberger letter and Lewis’ behavior during the seven years she has lived in an isolated, 6-by-8-ft. cell at a Fluvanna County correctional facility. During her imprisonment, Lewis’ faith has deepened. She ministers to other prisoners and has “provided some measure of peace” to troubled inmates, says the Rev. Lynn Litchfield, Lewis’ prison chaplain until April 2009. “I really believe Teresa can be a positive influence inside,” Litchfield says. Governor McDonnell will issue a clemency ruling by Sept. 18, in keeping with his policy of ruling on clemency petitions at least five days before the date of a scheduled execution, says his spokesman, Tucker Martin. (Comment on this story.)
Rocap describes his client as anxious and apprehensive as the days tick away. “She wants to live. She’s not resigned to dying,” he says. “She thinks she has a lot to offer and she wants to do anything she can to make people realize she’s much more than the person that was depicted on the worst day of her life.” In testimony written by Lewis and read by a fellow inmate at services held in late August, the condemned was remorseful. “I’ve done so many things wrong. I took two people’s lives that I loved very much and I hurt so many more that I loved as well!” she writes, later adding, “I don’t want to die this way, or actually die at all! … I will fight to the end, and in the end, no matter what, I’m gonna win either way.”
A Virginia woman named Teresa Lewis was sentenced to death by legal injection after she paid two men to shoot and kill her husband Julian Lewis, and stepson C.J. Lewis back in October of 2003. Teresa Lewis met the two men-Matthew Shallenberger, 22, and Rodney Fuller, 19- in a local Walmart and began a relationship with Shallenberger. She promised to split her stepson’s $250,000 life insurance policy with them in return for killing her family. In May 2003 Lewis waived her right to a trial and pleaded guilty to seven offenses, including two counts of murder for hire. Lewis will become the first woman executed by Virginia in 98 years and the 12th overall since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Lewis’s lawyer argues that her sentence should be lightened due to Lewis being on the border of mental retardation, evidence that she was addicted to prescription painkillers that would have impaired her judgment that the time of the killings, and the fact that she has become very remorseful and a positive influence on other prison inmates. The decision is up to Governor McDonnell who will issue a clemency ruling by Sept. 18 so until then all Lewis can do is wait.
This article mentions that Lewis pleaded guilty to seven offenses but it only specifically lists the two counts of murder for hire. Murder for hire is when someone pays another person (considered a hitman) to kill a particular individual in exchange for money or other compensation. It often involves more than one person that is doing the hiring and more than one person that is being hired. This is definitely as serious as a murder charge because even though the person that hired the hitman didn’t actually commit the murder, they took the time to plan it and hire someone to do it for them. This shows the person had criminal intent or mens rea.
The crime in this article is murder for hire, which according to the textbook is mala en se. The textbook gives the definition of mala en se as acts that are viewed as criminal because they are wrong, immoral, or evil in themselves. Paying someone to take the life of another person is immoral and evil and is thus mala en se. As an investigator for this story, I would choose to report the crimes to the UCR (Uniform Crime reports) instead of the NIBS (National Incident-Based Reporting System). I would do this, because as the text states, the UCR is the country’s major source of crime data and information. As a result the American public looks to the UCR for crime statistics and change in crime levels so I would want my crime information to be in such a noteworthy source.
This article describes the heinous acts of murder and murder for hire. Teresa Lewis is accused of hiring two men to kill her husband, Julian, and her stepson, C.J., for $250,000 in life insurance money. It was the chilling death-bed accusation that sealed this woman’s fate, “My wife knows who done this to me.”
Lewis hired Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller to kill her husband and stepson. Lewis met the two in a local Walmart and began to have a very torrid love affair with Shallenberger. In exchange for killing her husband and stepson, she offered to split the insurance money and fronted $1,200 for the guns and ammunition. After being caught, Lewis pled guilty to seven offenses, including two counts of murder for hire. The judge deemed Lewis as the mastermind and sentenced her to death by lethal injection.
Lewis, who is now scheduled to be executed for her mala en se crimes, is trying to bring new evidence to light in effort to obtain clemency from by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. She does not want to be executed for these crimes, but her lawyer is stating that mitigating circumstances have not been considered in this case such as mental capacity, her addiction to pain medication, and a dependent-personality disorder, which left her particularly susceptible to manipulation by men (mainly Shallenberger).
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, in cases where the death penalty is imposed, under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, juries must be instructed that they may consider mitigating circumstances such as the defendant’s youth, mental capacity, or childhood abuse so that they may reach a reasoned and moral sentencing decision (Mitigating Circumstances, 2008). However, even though Lewis has an IQ as low as 70 and was addicted to pain medication at the time of crime, she does not qualify as mentally handicapped. The other additional evidence presented as mitigating circumstances is the fact that she was manipulated by Shallenberger. Shallenberger wrote a letter (prior to his suicide) stating that he had struck up an affair with Lewis to “get her to ‘fall in love’ with me so she would give me the insurance money.” As despicable as this statement is, how would he have known about the insurance policy without Lewis offering the information to her lover? I do not view these as mitigating circumstances.
As an investigator of this crime, it would be imperative for me to have all of the information reporting in NIBS (National Incident-Based Reporting System). This would allow me to prove to the prosecutor and to the Governor that there were other crimes involved that go beyond her mitigating circumstances. The UCR (Uniform Crime Reports) would only show the murder and/or the murder for hire; however there were five other offenses that she was charged with. The other offenses may help explain her state of mind and negate the mitigating circumstances that her attorney is trying to hold up.
UPDATE: the Governor of Virginia denied her appeal and she is scheduled to be executed. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20016951-504083.html
References:
Mitigating Circumstances. (2008). West’s encyclopedia of American law. The Gale Group, Inc.
On September 23rd Teresa Lewis will be only the 12th woman exicuted since the United States brought back the death penalty in 1976. On October 30th 2002, two men with shot guns entered the Lewis’s unlocked trailer in the middle of the night. When they left only one of three members of the Lewis family were alive, Teresa. Teresa’s husband Julian and son Cj were dead. Julian’s lasts words were “my wife knows who done this to me.” Sure enough he was he was right. It turns out that Teresa Lewis paid the shooters, Matthew Shallenberger, 22 and Rodney Fuller, 19 to kill her husband and stepson. What makes this crime so heinous is that it was over money and sex. Lewis was having an affair with Shallenberger.
In return for killing her husband and stepson, Teresa promised to split Cj’s $250,000 life-insurence plan with Shallenberger and Fuller. She also fronted the two men $1200 so they could buy guns and amo. In 2003 Lewis waived her right to trial and pleaded guilty to seven offenses, including two counts of murder for hire. A judge found her to be “the head of this serpent” and sentensed her to death by lethal injection. Lewis is now trying to play the mentally ill card because she does not want to die. To this point it is not working because even though it is proven that Lewis is not the sharpest tool in the shed, she is not mentally handicap. The two shooters were both given life sentences. Since then Shallenberger has commited suicide.
Teresa Lewis’s crime is murder for hire, and according to the textbook that falls under mala in se. This is mala in se along with crimes like rape, larceny and cannibalism because they are viewed by most people as being wrong, immoral or evil in themselves. This crime was every bit of that. Hiring people to kill your family for and affair and some money is wrong on so many levels. If I was to report this crime, i would report it to the NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System) because Lewis plead guilty to seven counts and two counts of murder for hire. All of her crimes should be reported not just the murder for hire.
Teresa Lewis story is a very intresting and controversial one to say the least. Her story to me almost sounds like a bad soap opera coming to real life. Lewis on September 23rd will be executed for the responsibility of murdering her husband Julian and son CJ. Although she was not the one to literally kill her family she was just the director behind the murder. The murders matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller were paid $1200 dollars by Lewis in order to purchase guns and ammo for the shooting. In return Lewis was also having an affair with one of the murders and also promised to split her son’s life insurance policy which was worth upwards to $250,000. During the hearing the judge ordered Lewis be killed by lethal injection. Now Lewis and her lawyers (like so many out there) are trying to beat the criminal justice system and she is declaring herself mentally unstable. Her lawyers claim her pain pills give her no sense of remorse and therefor by the 8th amendment not mentally stable enough to charge in the court of law. Unfortunately for Lewis what goes around comes around and the judge finds her mentally stable enough to proceed with the original sentence.
From my perspective, i agree with death penalty on many levels. i believe if you are willing to take an innocent persons life for the well being of yourself you should be punished to the full extent of the law. Lewis has murdered her family and has no remorse for it. She claims herself mentally insane because she simply does not want to die. In my opinion tough luck. As the saying goes “you dig your grave you lie in it” and i believe for lewis it’s time to lay down and take her well deserved punishment.
On October 30th, 2002 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, the Lewis family home was invaded by two men armed with shotguns. Teresa Lewis’ husband Julian and step son CJ were both killed. Upon leaving, the gun men took the cash from Julians wallet. After further investigation, it was found that Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller had been paid $1,200 by Teresa Lewis to buy guns and shoot her family. She also had been having an affair with Shallenberger and agreed to share her step sons life-insure of about $250,000.
In May of 2003, Teresa Lewis pleaded guilty to seven offenses. Two of these offenses included murder for hire. The judge in this case viewed Lewis as the brains behind the crime and sentenced her to death with use of lethal injection on September 23rd. As for the gun men, they had pleaded guilty and were sentenced to jail for life. Teresa’s lawyers attempted to lighten her sentence by saying she has a slight mental retardation and her high use of prescription painkillers have gave her no remorse. Murder for hire is just as serious in this case as actually performing the murder. Teresa Lewis set a plot to kill her own family, which is just as bad as actually performing the murder. Because the judge saw Teresa as the brains behind the murder, she was sentenced to death whereas the two gun men were sentenced to prison.
Teresa Lewis’ crime, murder for hire, is considered mala in se. The text book refers to mala in se as acts that are viewed as criminal because they are wrong, immoral, or evil in themselves. Lewis’ crime was morally wrong because she had set a plot to kill loved ones. Under no circumstances should this situation be taken any lightly than it is. Painkillers and stupidity is no excuse to plot a murder. As an investigator for this story, I would report Teresa’s crime to the NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System). Teresa was morally wrong to perform two counts of murder for hire but the other five counts of crime should not go unnoticed. Meanwhile, the UCR (Uniform Crime Reports) would only report the crime of murder for hire. I believe all of her crimes should be reported by the NIBRS because all are factors in considering her punishment and how she is viewed as an individual.
On October 30th 2002, the Lewis family unlocked trailer was invaded by two armed men with shotguns. When they arrived one of the intruders told Teresa Lewis to leave the bedroom, then her husband Julian was shot multiple times. Her step son was also shot by the intruders. When the police arrived, Julian Lewis (husband) was still alive and stated, “My wife knows who done this to me.” these two men were not strangers. Teresa Lewis met the two men,Matthew Shallenberger 22, and Rodney Fuller, 19- in a local Walmart and began a relationship with Shallenberger. She promised to split her stepson’s $250,000 life insurance policy with them in return for killing her family. This crime is so gross because it was about sex and money. Lewis was having an affair with Shallenberger, one of the men who killed her husband and step- son. Lewis got sentenced to lethal injection and the two murders got charged with a prison sentence.
Lewis’s crime was murder for hire. This is considered mala in se. The text states that Mala in se is criminal acts that are completely immoral and no excuses wrong. Other examples are rape, larceny and cannibalism. The crime that Teresa Lewis committed was completely immoral. Hiring two individuals to kill your family for money and because your having an affair is completely wrong. All of her crimes should be reported not just the murder for hire. If I was to report this crime I would report it to the NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System). This would allow me to prove to the prosecutor and to the Governor that there were other crimes involved that go beyond her mitigating circumstances.because Lewis plead guilty to seven counts and two counts of murder for hire.
The article that I decided to read for my internet blog was the story about Teresa Lewis, a Virginian woman that will be executed on September 23rd after she had hired two men to kill both her husband and child back in October 2002. Lewis was currently having an affair with one of the men she hired- Matthew Shallenberger and had promised to split the stepson’s life insurance which totaled around 250,000 dollars.In May 2003, Lewis waived her right to a trial and pleaded guilty to seven offenses, including two counts of murder for hire. Lewis will become the first woman executed by Virginia in 98 years. The judge has concluded that Lewis was the conspirator and as so her punishment was death by lethal injection. Lewis’s lawyer however, feels that the judge should lower her sentence due to the fact that Lewis borderlines mental retardation.
I would classify this crime as Mala en se. Mala en se, as defined in the textbook, is acts that are viewed as criminal because they are wrong, immoral, or evil in themselves. Hiring a “hit man” and telling them to kill someone, especially your husband and step son is not only wrong, it’s just sick.
As for who I would report this crime to if I was the investigator… I would probably send my report the crimes to the UCR, which is Uniform Crime reports, instead of the NIBS. A Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) gives the official data on crime that is reported to law enforcement agencies across the United States(“Uniform crime reports,” 2010). American police departments use the UCR as the country’s number one source of crime data and statistics and I feel that this awful crime deserves to be taken down and put into the statistical information. Citizens also view the UCR as a source of crime statistics and are able to view crime levels.
The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), as defined in the text, is an incident-based reporting system used by law enforcement agencies in the United States for collecting and reporting data on crimes. Local, state and federal agencies generate NIBRS data from their records management systems(“National incident based,” 2010), and I feel something this major and awful should be taken down and kept on record.
In this articlea Virginia woman woke up to two intruders with guns. These men let her go but shot her husband and stepson. She later admitted to hiring the men kill her family in order to recieve a health insurance payment. Lewis, the woman, turned down her right to a trial and pleaded guilty to the two murders and was sentenced to death. Controversey arose over the idea of a woman being put to death. Lewis and her lawyer are looking for any way to get the judge to lighten her sentence.
The crimes in this article are the two counts of murder, murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and insurance fraud. Murder is the intentinal taking of another life. Murder-for-hire is the concept of hiring asailants to kill for you. Insurance fraud is faking something that was intentional in order to receive an insurance payment.
Murder and murder-for-hire are crimes that are mala en se because they are crimes that are wrong in themselves. Insurance fraud is mala prohibita because it is wrong because society says it is. People look at fraud as moraly wrong. If I were an investigator on this case I would rather have it processed through NIBRS. My reasoning is that prosecutors wold have more success if all of the crimes were reported. NIBRS goes into detail and reports every crime committed at the scene. UCR only reports the most severe of crimes committed (Textbook). In a case this odd and high profile as an investigator, you want to do whatever possible in order to get a conviction.
This article talks about a Virginia woman who became romantically involved with another man and then planned her own husband and sons murder. She had a deal with the men that if they killed the husband and son she would split the son’s $250,000 life insurance check with them. She gave them $1,200 up front and then was planning on splitting the rest later. Some of the husbands last dying words were that his wife knew who did that to him and he was right. The judge named Teresa Lewis as the spearhead to the innocent murders of her husband and son and sentenced her to the death penalty by lethal injection. Her date with death is set for September 23, 2010.Her lawyers are working on getting the sentenced reduced, as she now has a great sense of remorse and they feel she is on the edge of mental retardation.
There are several crimes that were committed in this case they including but not limited to premeditated murder and murder for hire. This is a prime example of cold blooded murder Lewis went out and became involved with another man and let sex and the love of money motivate her to kill two innocent lives. It was clearly premeditated and she knew exactly what she was doing because she agreed to share the money with the two other men and gave them an advance to go out and buy guns and ammunition. There is absolutely no excuse for these murders and I agree that the death penalty is a fair and just decision.
This crime is mala in se there is no justification for it at all. Anyone who can consciously agree to have two other innocent people killed is just heartless and the fact that it was family makes it even worse. The crime is evil and wrong all the way to the core. These people allowed money and lust to overcome them so much that they forgot about the value of life itself. If I were to report this crime I would report it to the NIBRS so that all seven crimes that were committed would be taken into account and not just overlooked because of the murders. I believe that in order to keep accurate records of crime in the US that each crime must be reported even if much smaller in comparison to another that went on at the same time. Especially in cases of mala in se there is usually one crime that stands out compared to the others, but at the end of the day a crime is a crime and it all must be reported and punished no matter what the extent of it was.
This article is about an event that took place after midnight on October 30, 2002. Two men entered a trailer in the County of Pittsylvania in Virginia and shot Julian Lewis and his son C.J., a US army reservist. The wife Teresa Lewis was told to leave the bedroom while this was happening. Forty-five minutes later she called the police to report the murders but it turns out the husband was still alive when the police arrived, and had time to point the finger at his wife for this sordid affair. In fact she had hired the men; Matthew Shallenberger, 22, and Rodney Fuller, 19, to kill her family. She had met Shallenberger at a Wallmart and they sparked an affair. She made a deal with them and promised to split her son’s $250,000 life insurance money with the men. She pleaded guilty to this and was sentenced to death by legal injection, while the men were given life sentences. She could become the first woman to be executed by the commonwealth in 98 years, if this happened. Her lawyers attempted to prevent this and tried lightening her sentence claiming; mental retardation, that she was addicted to pain killers, that she had poor cognitive abilities, a dependent-personality disorder, they tried proving that Shallenberger manipulated her for the money from this letter he wrote, and that she is now devoted to faith and has become a positive influence in prison. The Governor would be the one to grant clemency and that decision should have been made by September 18th now, so the decision has already been made.
According to our Criminology book the Classical School of Criminology views human behavior as rational and assumes people have the ability to choose right from wrong. Classical school theorists also believed that the major element governing how a person chooses to act is the basic human desire to obtain pleasure and avoid pain. So according to them it was important to install penalties and deterrents for crimes perpetrated, that were severe enough to outweigh any pleasure encountered through the commission of a criminal act. Because they thought that people who committed crimes chose to do so after weighing the consequences of their actions. So thinking rationally, if you weigh the outcome and the end result will bring you more trouble than rewards it should convince you to not do the crime. In other words, the classical school believed everyone had the free will to make a choice between getting what they want legally or illegally. That the fear of punishment could deter a person from committing a criminal act and that meant that making the pain of punishment more severe than the pleasure from criminal activities and their profit, would control the number of criminals.
Someone from the Classical School of Criminology would view the facts of this story in the following way. According to them Teresa Lewis rationally chose to cheat, plot her family’s murder and run off with her son’s life insurance policy. She had the ability to choose right from wrong and she chose wrong. Teresa acted to obtain pleasure like the classical school says. And the pleasure in her case was to run off with her lover and get easy money, which would give her a more pleasurable life than living in a trailer (her pain). In addition, she was also avoiding pain in this case by hiring the gunmen to kill her family so she wouldn’t have to do it herself. The Classical school would want her punished for her crimes but even the severe punishment you get for murder did not deter her from committing the crimes. So according to their school of thought the outcome of her crime was more enjoyable to her than the punishment which in this case is the death penalty. In other words, the pleasure she anticipated from the criminal act was much greater than the following pain that might be expected from it. In their eyes, she weighed the consequences of her actions. She is responsible for the murder of two people and got her money illegally all by her own free will. So in order to prevent her from doing any further injury to society Teresa had to be punished. And she deserved a more severe punishment than the others since she was the head of the operation and she executed serious crimes which deserve harsher punishment than someone who has just shoplifted or something like that. Since according to the classical school, you need to distribute different punishment for different crimes according to their degrees of danger. Which makes sense or else what would dissuade a criminal from committing a more serious crime than they have if the punishment for murder is the same as the punishment for stealing an apple, might as well commit the murder in that case. In this case the punishment fit her crime.
The goal of giving a proper punishment is also to discourage others from committing the same crimes. For instance in this case Teresa got the death penalty, and getting the death penalty would definitely dissuade anyone else who would think about doing anything of the same immorality from doing it too. Jeremy Bentham, an influential classical school theorist based his theories on the principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number. This information is also from our class textbook. And the pursuit of an individual’s happiness has to be in line with the best interest of all society. So to prevent greater evil from being inflicted on society (in this case her murdering people) and diminish happiness then punishment is a necessary evil. Hence, a person from the classical school would approve with the way things were handled with Teresa Lewis, she was held responsible for what she did, and she was punished adequately. Another classical theorist Cesare Beccaria however, would not agree with the death penalty sentence, he thought it was barbaric and is reminiscent of a punishment they would of applied in the 18th century, which he considered inhumane and not necessary and which he was against. But the prison sentence would have been warranted considering the degree of the crime.
On October 30, 2002, two armed men broke into an unlocked trailer in Pittslyvania County, Virginia. The two men alarmed a family of three sleeping. The men ordered Teresa Lewis to leave the bedroom that she shared with her husband, Julian Lewis. One of the intruders shot Julian Lewis several times, while the other intruder went into Julian’s son, C.J.’s room and shot him five times. The intruders stole money from Julian’s wallet and fled the scene. Teresa Lewis called the police about 45 minutes after the men left to report that her husband and son had been shot and killed. Once the police arrived to the trailer, Julian Lewis was still alive. He died soon after his last words, “My wife knows who done this to me.” Indeed, Julian Lewis was right. Teresa Lewis, in detailed court documents, had paid the two men, Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller, to kill her husband and stepson. Teresa Lewis met the two men at a local Wal-Mart, and started an affair with Matthew Shallenberger. She offered the two half of her stepson’s $250,000 life insurance policy and front the money to pay for heir guns and ammunition. In May of 2003, Lewis pleaded guilty, after waiving her right to trial, to seven offenses. A judge sentenced her to death by lethal injection. The gunmen plead guilty and were given life sentences. The question is now, should Teresa Lewis suffer capital punishment for her crime? Teresa Lewis’ lawyers have argued that she is on the brink of mental retardation, but Virginia doesn’t consider prisoners mentally handicapped unless their score on an IQ test is extremely low and they can’t function in society. At the time of the murders she was high off of prescription medications. Teresa Lewis is still fighting for her life not to end with a lethal injection.
The Classical School of Criminology viewed human behavior as essentially rational, that people have the ability to choose right from wrong, and that people make rational choices to commit crimes. Most human behavior is a result of free will. Classical School criminologists believed that punishment is a necessary evil and that it deter law violators and serve as an example to others not to commit crimes. Cesare Beccaria, one of the major contributors to the classical school, believed that torture is unethical and that all people are innocent until proven guilty. The Classical School would view Teresa Lewis’ punishment as unethical, since followers of the Classical School believed that all capital punishment was deemed unethical. The purpose of punishment is to prevent criminal others from committing similar crimes.
In late October of 2002, two men entered an unlocked trailer and shot two of the three people who lived there; Julian Lewis and his son. Julian’s son didn’t make it but Julian lived long enough to let the policemen who arrived later that the third person in the trailer knew what had happened. She did. Julian’s wife, Teresa Lewis, had hired the gunmen herself. She was sleeping with one of the men and had promised both of them the insurance money that would come from Julian’s son, who was an Army reservist. Teresa Lewis was sentenced to death by lethal injection, having orchestrated the entire crime and even buying the guns that killed her family. However, her lawyer is trying to get her sentence reduced, claiming that she is close to legally retarded, that she was addicted to medicine at the time of the murders, and that she was manipulated by the man she had been sleeping with, Matthew Shallenberger. Lewis is now repentant and does not want the death penalty, having found her faith and believing she can do good within the prison system by encouraging other inmates. (She was ultimately given the death penalty and killed September 23rd, 2010.)
Cognitive theories focus on the mental processes that lead up to crime, as well as how the environment and life obstacles are perceived. Because an inverse correlation has been found between IQ and aggression (a person with a lower IQ will be more aggressive when provoked) it’s easy to examine her actions from an intellect point of view. The state did not find Lewis certifiably retarded, however her score on IQ tests suggest she was borderline. According to cognitive theories and the emphasis they put on problem solving, it’s not unreasonable to assume the act of hiring men to kill her family was a response to a problem, if that is indeed how she perceived her husband and step-son. She was having an affair with Shallenberger; if for any reason she believed her family was an obstacle to her being able to be with Shallenberger, she may well have wanted them killed. This would explain her actions and reactions in relation to the murders. Whether she was the mastermind who orchestrated the act or whether she was manipulated, she still condoned killing and allowed it to happen. The fact that the trailer was unlocked when the killers arrived might just be a coincidence, or it may suggest even further preparation. Lewis contributed to the murders, and the cognitive theory’s account for IQ and aggression is a good explanation for her motives and mental processes. I believe it does explain why she killed them; if her automatic response to a problem was always to act aggressively, if low IQ is tied to aggression and she was borderline handicapped, the evidence points to her killing her family as some sort of solution.
On October 30th 2002, two men where hired to shoot and kill a man Julian and his son CJ. Ironically, the were hired by the wife, Teresa Lewis. Julian’s lasts words were “my wife knows who done this to me.”
Teresa Lewis hired Matthew Shallenberger, 22 and Rodney Fuller, 19 to kill her husband and stepson. In 2003, Lewis pleaded guilty to being convicted of murder for hire. She was later sentenced to death by lethal injection. The shooters where also later sentenced to life in prison.
The Classical School of Criminology would see Teresa’s crime as being her own choice and wrong-doing. According to their School of thought, Teresa’s crime was intended to allow Teresa her extra ‘pleasures’ and so the level of punishment must balance the same as her pleasures except in reverse. The penalty would also act as a repelant to future criminals who are still thinking twice before shooting that next victim.
As for Teresa’s motive, greed is defiantly up there. With the insurance claim being the main gain. Obviously there was some hate involved since she organized for them to get shot. So there might have been a bad relationship involved.
on october 30th, 2002 two shotgun wielding men walked into an unlocked trailer in pittsylvania county virginia and shot and killed theresa lewis’s husband and stepson in their sleep. 45 minutes later the police were called and theresa’s husband, with his last words said ” my wife knows who done this to me “. and she did. she had hired those two men, Matthew Shallenberger, 22, and Rodney Fuller, 19 to kill her family so she could collect on her son’s 250,000 dollar life insurance. only hours after the shooting happened, lewis was inquiring on how to collect her husbands last paycheck and when she could collect her son’s life insurance.
the crimes discussed in this article are murder or hire, insurance fraud and murder. the two men each got two counts of murder, as they both shot both men. theresa lewis was probably charged with, along with many other chargers, insurance fraud and murder for hire. she is due to receive the death penalty for this terrible crime.
under the general theory of crime developed by michael gottfredson and travis hirschi, they define crime as “acts of force or fraud undertaken in pursuit of self-interest” and they believe that the criminals lack self control. with this woman having an iq of 70, she probably didnt have much self control. also, she did, exactly, commit acts of force and fraud in the pursuit of self-interst by hiring people to kill her family to collect their life insurance. this theory talks about ” easy and immediate gratification of desires and criminal acts providing few or meager long-term benefits.. these both describe the crime perfectly.
Teresa Lewis,a woman from Virginia, had her husband and stepson murdered by two men. She plead guilty to two counts of “murder for hire” as well as five other offenses. Lewis was found guilty and sentences to death by lethal injection. She had hired two men, Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller. Lewis had been having an affair with Shallenberger. The two men Lewis hired were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison however, Shallenberger committed suicide in 2006. Lewis had promised to split her stepson’s (U.S. Army reservist) life insurance with Shallenberger and Fuller. Her lawyer’s believed her case should be lightened as she is border-line mentally handicap, suffers from dependent-personality disorder, and she was addicted to prescription painkillers. If put to death Lewis would be the first woman in 98 years to be executed in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
In our text book addiction is defined as such, “the condition in which a person becomes physically dependent on a drug and so will go through withdrawal if drug use ceases.” Since she claimed to have been taking prescription painkillers it would be considered illicit drug use. It is said that the relationship between illicit drug use and violent crimes is strong. According to our textbook, “about 16 million Americans are regular illicit drug users.”
According to the article her lawyers have only claimed that she was addicted to prescription drugs, but not that there were any tests to back that up. I find that drug use when a crime is committed is a very controvercial issue. I don’t think that drug use whether it be prescription or not should be an excuse to lighten a person’s sentencing. As the book said drug use can lead to violent behavior however, it does not excuse such behavior. The person who committed the crime chose to take the drugs and knew what the results could be, but chose to ignore that fact. I do not believe Lewis’ sentence should lightened due to drug use.