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This is the first time in the 60-year history of the United States that a woman has been sentenced to death.
The woman, Lisa Montgomery, strangled a pregnant woman in Missouri in 2004, then cut her abdomen and abducted her unborn child.
Authorities say he will be executed in Indiana on December 6 with a toxic injection.
Bonnie Heidi is the latest woman to be executed in America. The death sentence was carried out in 1953 in a gas chamber in Missouri, according to the Center for the Death Penalty.
“Lisa Montgomery has committed a heinous crime,” said United States Attorney General William Barr.
The Trump administration announced the resumption of the death penalty nationwide last year.
Who is this Lisa Montgomery?
In December 2004, Lisa Montgomery drove from Kansas to victim Bobby Joe Steinette’s home to buy a puppy, according to a press release from the Justice Department.
Stinette was then eight months pregnant.
“As soon as he entered the room, Lisa Montgomery attacked Stinet and grabbed him by the neck. At one point, Stinet lost consciousness.”
The press release further stated: “Montgomery then cut into Stinet’s lower abdomen with a kitchen knife. Stenet then regained consciousness. Then there was a fight between them. Montgomery then strangled Stinet and killed him.”
Montgomery then pulled the baby out of Stinette’s stomach and fled with him. She tries to run him like her own son.
A judge convicted Montgomery of kidnapping and murder at the beginning of the trial. He was unanimously sentenced to death.
But Montgomery’s attorneys argued in court that he was mentally ill as a result of brain damage caused by beating him as a child. That is why it would not be correct to condemn him to death.
Death Penalty at the Federal and State Level: What’s the Difference?
Under the United States justice system, crimes can be prosecuted in two stages. These trials can take place in federal courts at the national level or in state courts at the regional level.
The trial of some of the crimes began immediately in federal court. Includes counterfeit currency and card theft.
Depending on the severity of the crime, those crimes can be tried in federal court.
In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was prohibited at both the state and national levels. Death sentences pending execution were also abolished.
Four years later, another Supreme Court ruling in 1987 allowed the reintroduction of the death penalty at the state level. In 1978, the government enacted a law that legalized executions at the federal level.
As a clearinghouse on the death penalty, seven people have been sentenced to death nationwide from 198 to 2017, and only three of them have been executed.
If Montgomery is executed in December, it will be the eighth execution this year nationally.
Why change the policy on the death penalty
After a long hiatus, the Trump administration announced last year that it would reinstate the sentence.
In a statement issued at the time, the attorney general said: “During the bipartisan government, the Justice Department requested permission to reintroduce the death penalty for serious offenders.
“The Department of Justice wants to guarantee the rule of law. We are indebted to the victim and his family for enforcing the sentence,” he said.
Source: BBC
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