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It will be the first execution of a female federal prison in the United States in 67 years. Lisa Montgomery, who strangled a pregnant woman in Missouri in 2004 and then opened and stole her baby, will die by lethal injection in Terre Haute, Indiana, on December 8.
According to the Center for Information on the Death Penalty, the last time a woman was executed by the United States government was in 1953: Bonnie Brown Heady died in the gas chamber, convicted of kidnapping and murder, along with her boyfriend, the six-year-old son of an automotive mogul.
Attorney General William Barr announced the decision to proceed with the execution of Montgomery, 52, in a statement in which he also announced the execution date of December 10 for Brandon Bernard, 40, who along with two accomplices were found guilty of the murder of two pastors of a church in Texas in 1999.
Barr said these crimes are “especially heinous.”
Who is Lisa Montgomery?
Lisa Montgomery met Bobbie Jo Stineett at a chat room. In December 2004, Lisa left Kansas and went to Bobbie Jo Stinnett’s home in Missouri, supposedly to buy a dog. “Once inside the residence, Montgomery attacked and strangled Stinnett until the victim lost consciousness,” the Justice Department statement said.
“Using a kitchen knife, Montgomery cut the abdomen of Stinnett”, who was eight months pregnant. He regained consciousness and struggled. Montgomery strangled Stinnett to death. He then removed the baby from Stinnett’s body, took it away, and said it was his daughter.
Her husband, Kevin Montgomery, said he had no idea that the baby was not theirs, as Lisa had pretended to be pregnant in the previous months.
In 2007, a jury found Montgomery guilty of kidnapping and murder and unanimously recommended the death penalty.
Montgomery’s attorneys claim that she is mentally ill, motivated by beatings as a child, and that she suffers from psychosis and other illnesses, so she should not be executed. “In the grip of mental illness, Lisa committed a terrible crime,” Nashville, Tennessee, District Attorney Kelley Henry said in a statement. “However, she immediately expressed deep regret and was willing to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence without the possibility of release. Lisa Montgomery has long accepted full responsibility for her crime and will never be released from prison. But his severe mental illness and the devastating impacts of his childhood trauma make the execution a profound injustice. “
Stinnett’s daughter, Victoria Jo, is currently 16 years old.
Montgomery is the only woman among 55 federal prisoners awaiting execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
How does the death penalty work in the United States?
In the United States justice system, crimes can be prosecuted in federal, national or state, regional or regional courts.
The death penalty was outlawed by a 1972 Supreme Court decision. Then a 1976 decision allowed states to reinstate the death penalty, and in 1988 the government passed a law that made it possible again at the federal level. According to data compiled by the Center for Information on the Death Penalty, 78 people were sentenced to death in federal trials between 1988 and 2018, but only three were executed.
That number increased during the Trump Administration. The Montgomery and Bernard executions will be the eighth and ninth the federal government has carried out this year.
In state prisons, 16 women have been executed since 1976. The most recent was in September 2015, when Kelly Renee Gissendaner died by lethal injection in Georgia for the murder of her husband in 1997.
