US government executes female prisoner for the first time since 1953
A KANSAS woman was executed yesterday for strangling an expectant mother in Missouri and cutting the baby from her womb, the first time since 1953 that the US government has put to death a female inmate.
Lisa Montgomery (52) was pronounced dead at 1.31am after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.
She was the 11th prisoner to receive a lethal injection there since July, when President Donald Trump, an ardent supporter of capital punishment, resumed federal executions following 17 years without one.
As a curtain was raised in the execution chamber, Montgomery – the only woman on federal death row – looked momentarily bewildered as she glanced at the journalists behind thick glass.
A woman standing over Montgomery’s shoulder leaned over, gently removed Montgomery’s face mask and asked her if she had any last words. “No,” Montgomery responded in a quiet, muffled voice.
At 1.30am an official listened to her heart and chest, then walked out. She was pronounced dead a minute later.
“The craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight,” Montgomery’s attorney Kelley Henry said in a statement.
“Everyone who participated in the execution of Lisa Montgomery should feel shame.
“The government stopped at nothing in its zeal to kill this damaged and delusional woman.”
Montgomery was the first of the final three federal inmates scheduled to die before next week’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who is expected to discontinue federal executions.
However, a federal judge for the District of Columbia halted the scheduled executions later this week of Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs.
Montgomery killed 23-yearold Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the
Missouri town of Skidmore in 2004. She strangled Ms Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, then cut the baby girl from the womb with a kitchen knife. Montgomery took the child and attempted to pass the girl off as her own.
An appeals court granted her a stay of execution, shortly after another appeals court lifted a ruling that she was likely mentally ill and couldn’t comprehend she would be put to death. But both appeals were lifted, allowing the execution to go forward.