‘Womb raid’ woman on death row is executed
THE only woman on death row was executed yesterday as her lawyer criticised the “bloodlust” of Donald Trump’s “failed administration”.
Killer Lisa Montgomery, 52, was the first woman to be put to death by the US government in 67 years after the Supreme Court vacated a judge’s stay to assess her “mental competency”.
Had her lethal jab been delayed by a week it may have saved her – Joe Biden, to be inaugurated on January 20, was expected to commute her sentence to life.
She was pronounced dead at 1.31am local time at Terre Haute federal prison, Indiana. She is the 11th to die there since last July when Trump resumed federal executions after a 17-year moratorium. Witnesses said Montgomery looked confused while strapped to a gurney.
A woman removed her face mask and asked if she had anything to say. She replied: “No” As lethal drug pentobarbital entered her arm, Montgomery tapped her fingers, licked her lips and gasped briefly.
At 1.30am, an official listened to her heart using a stethoscope before walking out. Her lawyer Kelley Henry said it was “far from justice”, adding: “Everyone participating in the execution should feel shame. The government stopped at nothing in its zeal to kill this damaged, delusional woman.”
Montgomery, who had mental health problems, strangled eight months pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, in Missouri in December 2004, then cut out her baby and tried to pass it off as her own.
The child, Victoria Jo, survived and was brought up by dad Zeb.
Montgomery’s lawyers said she did not receive a fair trial and was not protected from severe abuse as a child.