Admitted Philadelphia Cop Killer Sentenced to Death

by KYW's Tony Hanson

After a one-day delay in jury deliberations, admitted cop killer John Lewis has been sentenced to death for the murder of police officer Charles Cassidy in 2007.

Lewis pleaded guilty to killing Cassidy and was convicted last Friday of first-degree murder.

Prosecutor Edward Cameron urged the jury to approve the death penalty for Lewis, saying that the aggravating factors -- including the murder of a police officer during a robbery, his significant criminal history, and endangering others -- outweighed any mitigating factors.

Cameron suggested that the jury show Lewis "the same mercy" that Lewis showed Officer Cassidy, who was shot in the forehead at close range when he interrupted a robbery at a doughnut shop in 2007.

But defense attorney Bernard Siegal, fighting to save Lewis’ life, told the jury that Lewis accepted responsibility by pleading guilty even though he knew that the minimum sentence would be life in prison.

Siegel asked jurors, "Is it necessary to kill him?  Is he too evil to live?"

After the jury reached its verdict but before the judge formally imposed the sentence, the officer's widow, Judy Cassidy was allowed the make a final victim impact statement.

Speaking directly to Lewis, she told him, "There are no winners today. We're all losers today. Nothing could make up for what you have done to us."

(Judy Cassidy, left, is accompanied by her children outside the courtroom on Tuesday.  Photo by KYW's Tony Hanson)

She went on to say, "You killed our protector, our rock, our superman. You broke our family."

After she finished her statement, Lewis spoke. He said that nothing he could do, nothing he could say, would make anybody feel any better.

But he indicated that he would take the sentence with honor "for Chuck," the victim, and his own family. He said he won't try to weasel out of anything and will accept the punishment for what he has done.

Lewis, 23, did not testify during his trial or during the subsequent penalty phase of the trial.

But the jury heard from him a couple of times in two outbursts -- one when he told a cousin that he loved him, and another when he blurted an apology to widow Judy Cassidy as she was testifying about her husband's murder (see previous story).

The jury also heard Lewis plead guilty to a series of six robberies and the murder of Cassidy.

But the jury determined the degree of guilt, finding it was a first-degree murder.  And now the jury has decided on the penalty, and the judge has agreed.