It is my birthday but I still thinking of Teresa Lewis.

It is my birthday this weekend and I shall be busy forcing myself to celebrate another year gone…no, I don’t mean that, celebrating another year of life – I shall make sure I enjoy myself and mark the event – not everyone is so lucky – actually I think I am as lucky as you can get but that is another story. It will be good having a few people round even if it won’t be a garden party like the one out there in my little garden last July.

As it is my birthday I won’t mention all the bad things that have been going on in the World this week but I am sure that you know what I mean. I have to say though that I shall be thinking of Teresa Lewis, that woman with learning difficulties who paid two contract killers (who both got life sentences) to murder her husband and stepson so that she could claim the insurance money. Even though psychologists said that she was border-line mentally retarded, she was executed by lethal injection in America on Friday at the Greensville Correction Center in Texas. I visited this place some years ago and will never forget the horror of seeing the similarities between the lethal injection “bed” and the electric chair. Nothing was going to persuade me that any death sentence is justifiable but this image spoke of just how horrible the process is.

Please USA, don’t keep going for these primitive rites of vengeance. amongst other reasons, you are only going to give the Iranians an excuse for stoning the woman they have imprisoned for alleged adultery. Sorry Barack Obama, I know you have your own problems at the moment, but we, over on this side of the pond, have high hopes for you and were kind of expecting these executions to stop. I fail to see how murdering murderers is any more ethical in a state than raping rapists.

It is my birthday, so I won’t go on about miserable things….but, I couldn’t but mention Teresa Lewis in the hope that if I am lucky enough to celebrate another birthday next year, that her death may just have shocked America enough to make it the last execution. That would be a birthday present in itself. Teresa Lewis had what is currently known as “learning difficulties” – sadly the same could be said for everyone who still supports the barbarism and pointlessness of capital punishment.

Woops, sorry, I am wearing my party hat honestly and I will still have fun this weekend – I have a lot to celebrate. The weather, as it’s forecast means that temperature won’t he high enough for any lunches in the garden like the one photographed above last July when my little garden showed just how many people could have a good time in it if they didn’t mind squeezing up a bit.  I can still look out of the window though and remember the fun and excitement that is a human life and, let’s be honest, seeing that empty space which has been full of people,  I will think of those three violent deaths, of Teresa Lewis and her two innocent victims.

2 Comments

  1. A sad story for your birthday. It's a very complex issue, and one that doesn't always seem linked to reason.

    It's good of you to think of somebody else on your birthday – if only more people did that.

    Enjoy!

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