In Response To The Legalized Murder Of Teresa Lewis

Wikipedia entry about Teresa Lewis.

Website dedicated to her.

This is my response to the execution of this woman (and to executions/value of life in general):

Thoughts on this execution--and on executions in general...

1.  Some people kill for money while other people kill for votes.
2.  If our government is trying to keep people believing that the death penalty is a just and wonderful thing, I don't think that they have exactly chosen the right executee to promote this sort of a mindset.
3.  Is Virginia better off tonight than it was 24 hours ago--or during the entire eight years when Teresa Lewis' comforting singing, listening heart, and spiritual support was helping troubled inmates to turn their lives around?
4.  Even though facts tell us the opposite, it costs a lot less to keep somebody alive for a lifelong prison term than it does to get them executed because every i must be dotted and every t must be crossed before an execution takes place in order to cut down on errors being made to where innocent people get executed--and notice that I said cut down on instead of totally cut out.
5.  Back during the time when people were fighting for the life of Terri Schiavo (which consisted of her right to food and fluids), those in favor of letting her die of starvation and dehydration often pointed out how "expensive" it was to keep her alive--bringing about an opinion I've held since the re-starting of executions here in the USA:  that the money/value of life issue would make its way upward from executions to mercy killing to a more contemporary version of the Holocaust.  We're closer to phase three than we'd like to admit...