More disturbing than Lewis' execution is our cavalier response

I come to bury Teresa Lewis, not to praise her. Certainly the evil that we do lives long after us, and the good is interred with our bones.

But I’m not convinced that Virginia (or any place) should be sanctioning the murder of our citizens — even the ones who “deserve” it. And I find the cavalier response on Internet message boards to be more disturbing than the execution itself.

If anyone ever “deserved” the death penalty, Teresa Lewis would fit the profile. When she plotted with two men to kill her husband and adult stepson so that she could collect insurance money, it was cold-blooded murder. Lewis admitted guilt, and there was no doubt she was highly involved even if she didn’t actually pull the trigger.

When it was also revealed that she had arranged for her 16-year-old daughter to have sex with one of the shooters as part of the bargain, her fate was sealed.

Like it or not, in America, we consider our wives and mothers to be the glue that holds our families together (especially because so many of our husbands/fathers choose to bolt). In that context, Lewis’ crime is particularly egregious. It’s one thing to kill your husband, but quite another to compound that with bad mothering.

Slate editor Dahlia Lithwick commented last week on how this perception plays out in real life:

“When women are sentenced to die, say experts, it tends to be for the most sexist reasons. Often, their crimes involve the murder of a spouse or a child, which comes with the assumption that they are bad mothers or unnatural wives. Experts say that men on death row, by comparison, have more often than not killed a stranger and done so in the commission of another crime.”

And so it is that Lewis’ greatest transgression to society was not her lack of respect for human life, but her failure as a wife and mother when she chose money above family.

“If Lewis were a man, her execution would hardly be news ... gender notwithstanding, Lewis is actually a pretty great candidate for capital punishment,” Lithwick writes. “She was sentenced harshly because she used sexuality and adultery to mastermind a murder plot against loved ones, and she seeks a reprieve from death because her sexuality made her a victim in uniquely female ways.”

What Lewis’ gender really did is force us to think about the death penalty. While Virginia is able to quietly execute men on a fairly regular basis — Darick Demorris Walker and Paul Powell so far this year — we couldn’t avoid having to ask ourselves the bigger questions this time.

So how did we do? How does state-administered killing affect our culture? Is it ever justified to cheer for a public execution? And though history may be filled with vengeful populaces, does the blood-lust speak to the best or worst side of human nature?

In our haste to rid the world of those who fall short of our measure, we shouldn’t lose sight that all life is sacred. Death, in all its forms, is nothing to cheer about.

Teresa Lewis decided to control the fate of her husband and stepson. We must ask ourselves if we aren’t playing the same role when we carry out capital punishment. It’s hard to advocate for a culture of life in a society where it’s acceptable to be so flippant when the state decides to take it.

Clements’ column runs every Monday. He lives in downtown Culpeper.