Last-minute Supreme Court ruling sees mentally ill US woman executed
A Kansas woman has been executed for murdering a pregnant woman and stealing her baby, the first time in nearly seven decades the US federal government has put to death a female inmate.
Lisa Montgomery ,52, was pronounced dead 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 Donald Trump, an ardent supporter of capital punishment, resumed federal executions following a 17-year pause.
As the process began, a woman standing over Montgo mery’ s shoulder leaned over, gently removed her face mask and asked if she had any last words. “No,” Montgomery responded in a quiet voice. She said nothing else.
Kelley Henry, Montgomer y’s lawyer, said in a state - ment: “The craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight. 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.”
The execution had been postponed twice–first after her legal team was affected by Covid-19, then by a judge in
Indiana who halted the process until a mental competency hearing could be held. But the stay of execution was lifted by the US Supreme Court.
A federal judge for the District of Columbia has also halted the executions later this week of Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to discontinue federal executions.
Montgomery killed Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, in the Missouri town of Skidmore in 2004.
She used a rope to strangle Ms Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then cut the baby girl from the womb with a kitchen knife. Montgomery took the child with her and attempted to pass the girl off as her own. But her story fell apart and she confessed to the killing. The baby was safely returned to her father. At trial, prosecutors accused her of faking mental illness, noting that her killing of Ms St in nett was premed it ated and included meticulous planning, including online research on how to perform a Caesarean section.
But Ms Henry said Montgomery’s original legal defence was woefully inadequate, and presented few of the details about her abuse, trauma and mental illness.
Her new legal team argued that she was too mentally ill to be executed. She had been born brain-damaged as a result of her mother’s heavy drinking and as a child she suffered sustained physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of her mother, her mother’s boyfriends and her stepfather.
Her defence team believe at the time of her crime, Montgomery was psycho tic and out of touch with reality. That opinion is supported by 41 current and former lawyers as well as human rights groups.
The government dis puted Montgomery could not comprehend she was scheduled for execution for killing another person. Her victim’s family and friends say Montgomery deserved to be put to death regardless of her mental health.