Lisa Montgomery, 52, killed a 23-year-old dog breeder, Bobbie Jo Stinnett
Reports claims she suffered a mental illness
In 2007 she was convicted of kidnapping resulting in death and handed a death sentence
An American woman killed a pregnant dog breeder in order to take her baby put to death by lethal injection Wednesday, turn out to be the first female executed by US federal authorities in nearly seven decades.
The US Justice Department said Lisa Montgomery, 52, declared dead at 1:31 am Eastern Time (0631 GMT) at a penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
It said the execution was “in accordance with the capital sentence unanimously recommended by a federal jury and imposed by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri”.
The US Supreme Court cleared the way for Montgomery’s execution just hours earlier — setting aside doubts about her mental state — after the government of President Donald Trump pushed for the application of the death penalty.
Montgomery’s defenders did not deny the seriousness of her crime: in 2004, she killed a pregnant 23-year-old in order to steal her baby.
But her lawyer Kelley Henry, in a statement, called the decision — the first for a female inmate since 1953 — a “vicious, unlawful, and unnecessary exercise of authoritarian power.”
“The craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight,” Henry said. “Everyone who participated in the execution of Lisa Montgomery should feel shame.”
The execution came after a legal back-and-forth that ended with the country’s highest court allowing it to proceed.
Unable to have a child, Montgomery carefully identified her victim 23-year-old dog breeder Bobbie Jo Stinnett online.
Under the guise of buying a puppy, Montgomery went to Stinnett’s home, she strangled her and cut the baby from her body.
In 2007 she was convicted of kidnapping resulting in death and handed a death sentence.
Her defenders believe that she suffered from severe mental health issues stemming from abuse she suffered as a child. She did not understand the meaning of her sentence, they said, a prerequisite for execution.
On Monday evening, a federal judge offered the defense a brief lifeline, ordering a stay of execution to allow time to assess Montgomery’s mental state.
“The record before the Court contains ample evidence that Ms. Montgomery’s current mental state is so divorced from reality that she cannot rationally understand the government’s rationale for her execution,” the ruling stated.
But an appeals court overturned that decision on Tuesday, leaving it up to the US Supreme Court to decide. It said the execution could go ahead.
