Lisa Montgomery Executed

14 years after her sentence, Lisa Montgomery was executed for murder early on Wednesday.

The only women on federal death row in the US received the lethal injection for her crimes and was pronounced dead at 1:31am at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. This came after a last-minute stay of execution was lifted by the US Supreme Court.

In 2007, Montgomery was found guilty of murdering 23-year-old pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnet. Strangling her before cutting out and kidnapping her baby, attempting to pass the baby girl off as her own. The next day she was sentenced to death.

Despite her crime, her lawyers argued that her mental health was to blame for her actions, and that she shouldn’t have been sentenced to death. Montgomery suffered serious abuse as a child, growing up being sexually and physically abused by her father, as well as trafficked by her mother, according to family members.

These circumstances caused her defence team to argue that at the time of her crime Montgomery was out of touch with reality, suffering mentally. Human rights groups have backed up these opinions as well, arguing against death row.

Bobbie Jo Stinnet’s family and friends believe that her sentence was justified despite the mental health claims, as the crime she committed was so horrific. Witnesses reveal that when Montgomery was asked if she had any final words, she simply responded with “no” and said nothing else.

Montgomery’s lawyer, Kelley Henry, said that everyone involved in the execution “should feel shame”, continuing that “Lisa Montgomery’s execution was far from justice.”