Who was Lisa Montgomery, why was she executed and when was the last female inmate executed in the US?

Lisa Montgomery
via REUTERS
Luke O'Reilly13 January 2021

The first female inmate on federal death row has been executed by the US government in nearly seven decades.

Lisa Montgomery, who was in jail after strangling a pregnant woman to death before stealing her baby, was executed by lethal injection on January 13.

Before that, the last woman to be executed by the US government was Bonnie Heady, who was put to death in a gas chamber in Missouri in 1953.

A federal judge had granted a stay in Montgomery’s execution on Tuesday, citing the need to determine her mental competence. But the US Supreme Court then cleared the way for her execution.

Here's what you need to know:

Who was Lisa Montgomery?

Lisa Montgomery was a housewife in Missouri. She had a history of phantom pregnancies and had had an operation preventing her from becoming pregnant. Her lawyers claimed she had brain damage and long-term mental health issues from abuse she received as a child.

What was her crime?

Ms Montgomery was convicted of killing 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the north west Missouri town of Skidmore in December 2004.

She drove from her Kansas home to Stinnett's house in Skidmore under the guise of adopting a rat terrier puppy, prosecutors said.

When she arrived at the home, Montgomery used a rope to strangle Ms Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant. Ms Stinnett was conscious and trying to defend herself as Montgomery used a kitchen knife to cut the baby girl from the womb, authorities said.

Lisa Montgomery is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on December 8 at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute
AP

Prosecutors said Montgomery removed the baby from Ms Stinnett's body, took the child with her, and attempted to pass the girl off as her own.

When was she executed?

Montgomery, 52, was pronounced dead after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana on January 13.

What is the law around capital punishment?

The death penalty was outlawed by a 1972 Supreme Court decision.

However, states were given the right to reinstate the death penalty in 1976.

This was then followed by the death penalty being made available at a federal level in 1988.

The Trump administration ended an informal 17-year-hiatus in federal executions in July, after announcing last year that the Bureau of Prisons was switching to a new single-drug protocol for lethal injections, from a three-drug combination it last used in 2003.

Before this, when was the last time a female inmate was put to death?

The last woman to be executed by the US government was Bonnie Heady, who was put to death in a gas chamber in Missouri in 1953, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.

She was executed over the kidnap and murder of six-year-old Bobby Greenlease, the son of a multi-millionaire car dealer.

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