On this date, January 13, 2021, Lisa Montgomery became the first female federal inmate in 67 years to be executed by the US federal government. The victim was a 23-year-old American woman found murdered in her home in Skidmore, Missouri. Lisa Marie Montgomery, then aged 36, strangled Stinnett from behind and removed Stinnett's unborn child, eight months into gestation, from her womb. The child was safely recovered by authorities and returned to the father.
Lisa Montgomery (left)
murdered Bobbie Jo Stinnett (right) before cutting her child from her womb
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[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/lisa-montgomery-who-death-row-inmate-granted-stay-execution-and-what-happened-bobbie-jo-stinnett-3093412] |
Murder of Bobbie Jo
Stinnett
Bobbie Jo Stinnett
(December 4, 1981 – December 16, 2004) was a pregnant 23-year-old American
woman found murdered in her home in Skidmore, Missouri. The
perpetrator, Lisa Marie Montgomery, then aged 36, strangled Stinnett
from behind and removed Stinnett's unborn child, eight months into gestation,
from her womb. The child was safely recovered by authorities and returned to
the father.
Montgomery was tried and found guilty in 2007, and executed by lethal injection on January 13, 2021, after exhausting the appeals process. Montgomery was the first female federal inmate in 67 years to be executed by the federal government.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Bobbie_Jo_Stinnett
Investigation results
Bobbie Jo Stinnett was eight months pregnant with her first child. She and her husband ran a dog-breeding business from their residence. Montgomery met Stinnett online in a Rat Terrier chatroom called "Ratter Chatter".
It is known that Stinnett was expecting the arrival in Skidmore, Missouri, of prospective buyers for a terrier at about the time of her murder. Montgomery told Stinnett that she, too, was pregnant, leading to the two women chatting online and exchanging e-mails about their pregnancies. Additionally, there was no sign of forced entry. Authorities now believe that Montgomery, posing as customer "Darlene Fischer", arranged to visit Stinnett's house on that day. On December 16, 2004, Montgomery entered the house, strangled Stinnett, and cut the premature infant from her womb.
It was speculated that Montgomery's motivation stemmed from a miscarriage she may have suffered and subsequently concealed from her family. How or whether Montgomery had recently become pregnant is unclear. Montgomery's former husband has since told authorities that she underwent a tubal ligation in 1990, and that she had a history of falsely telling acquaintances that she was pregnant.
The case
Stinnett was discovered by her mother, Becky Harper, in a pool of blood about an hour after the assault. Harper immediately called 9-1-1. Harper described the wounds inflicted upon her daughter as appearing as if her "stomach had exploded". Attempts by paramedics to revive Stinnett were unsuccessful, and she was pronounced dead at St. Francis Hospital in Maryville.
The next day, December 17, 2004, Montgomery was arrested at her farmhouse in Melvern, Kansas, where the newborn had been claimed as her own and was recovered. The day-old baby was placed in the custody of her father. The quick recovery and capture was attributed to, in part, the use of forensic computer investigation, which tracked Montgomery and Stinnett's online communication with one another. Both bred rat terriers and may have attended dog shows together. The later investigation was also aided by the issuance of an AMBER alert to enlist the public's help. The alert was initially denied because it had never been used in an unborn case and thus there was no description of the victim. Eventually, after intervention by Congressman Sam Graves it was implemented. When authorities went to speak to Montgomery they found her in the living room holding the baby and watching television with the AMBER alert flashing on the screen.[16] DNA testing was used to confirm the infant's identity.
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Lisa
Montgomery |
|
 |
|
|
Born |
Lisa Marie Montgomery
|
|
Died |
January 13, 2021 (aged 52) |
|
Cause of
death |
|
|
Criminal
status |
Deceased (Executed) |
|
Spouse(s) |
Kevin Montgomery |
|
Parent(s) |
Judy (mother) Jack Kleiner (stepfather) |
|
Criminal
charge |
Kidnapping resulting in death |
|
Details |
|
|
Date |
December 16, 2004 |
|
Country |
United States |
|
State(s) |
Missouri |
|
Date apprehended |
December 17, 2004 |
Perpetrator
Lisa Marie Montgomery (February 27, 1968 – January 13, 2021) resided in Melvern, Kansas, at the time of the murder. She was raised in an abusive home where she was allegedly raped by her stepfather for many years. She sought escape mentally by drinking alcohol. When Montgomery was 14, her mother discovered the abuse, but reacted by threatening her daughter with a gun. She tried to escape this situation by marrying at the age of 18, but both the first marriage and a second marriage resulted in further abuse, although in police interviews Montgomery admitted she was attracted to the S&M scene and that she "liked taking the whip".
Montgomery had four children before she underwent a tubal ligation in 1990. Montgomery falsely claimed to be pregnant several times after the procedure, according to both her first and second spouses.
Trial and ruling
Montgomery was charged with the federal offense of "kidnapping resulting in death", a crime established by the Federal Kidnapping Act of 1932, and described in Title 18 of the United States Code. If convicted, she faced a sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty.
At a pre-trial hearing, a neuropsychologist testified that head injuries, which Montgomery had sustained some years before, could have damaged the part of the brain that controls aggression. During her trial in federal court, her defense attorneys, led by Frederick Duchardt, asserted that she had pseudocyesis, a mental condition that causes a woman to falsely believe she is pregnant and exhibit outward signs of pregnancy. According to The Guardian, Duchardt attempted to follow this line of defense only one week before the trial began, after being forced to abandon a contradictory argument that Stinnett was murdered by Montgomery's brother Tommy, who had an alibi. As a result, Montgomery's family refused to co-operate with Duchardt and describe her background to the jury.
Dr. V. S. Ramachandran and MD William Logan gave expert testimony that Montgomery had pseudocyesis in addition to depression, borderline personality disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Ramachandran testified that Montgomery's stories about her actions fluctuated because her delusional state fluctuated, and that she was unable to appreciate the nature and quality of her acts. Both federal prosecutor Roseann Ketchmark and the opposing expert witness forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz disagreed strongly with the diagnosis of pseudocyesis.
On October 22, 2007, jurors found Montgomery guilty, rejecting the defense claim Montgomery was delusional. On October 26, the jury recommended a death sentence. Judge Gary A. Fenner formally sentenced Montgomery to death. On April 4, 2008, a judge upheld the jury's recommendation for death.
Duchardt's aforementioned pseudocyesis defense, Montgomery's past trauma and separate diagnoses of mental illness were not fully revealed to the jury until after her conviction, by her appeals team. This led critics, including Guardian journalist David Rose, to argue that Duchardt provided an incompetent legal defense for Montgomery. Fenner required Duchardt to be cross-examined in November 2016. Duchardt rejected all criticism and defended his conduct.
Subsequent legal proceedings
On March 19, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Montgomery's certiorari petition. Montgomery, who is registered for the Federal Bureau of Prisons under number 11072-031, was as of 2017 incarcerated at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, where she would remain until she would be transferred to the site of her execution. For a long time, she had been the only woman with a federal death sentence.
Experts who examined Montgomery after conviction concluded that by the time of her crime she had long been living with psychosis, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorders. She was said to be often disassociated from reality and to have permanent brain damage from numerous beatings at the hands of her parents and spouses.
Montgomery's scheduled execution on December 8, 2020, by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, was delayed following her attorneys' contracting COVID-19. On December 23, 2020, Montgomery was given a new execution date of January 12, 2021. U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss found that "the director's order setting a new execution date while the Court's stay was in effect was 'not in accordance with law,'" prohibiting Montgomery's execution to be rescheduled until January 1, 2021, at the earliest. On January 1, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated Moss's ruling, effectively reinstating Montgomery's execution date of January 12. On that date, federal judge Patrick Hanlon granted a stay of her execution on the grounds that her mental competence must first be tested as it could be argued she did not understand the grounds for her excution, per the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The stay was also vacated by a 6–3 ruling from the Supreme Court and the execution was ordered to be carried out right after this.
Only three other women have been executed by the U.S. federal government: in 1865, Mary Surratt, by hanging; in 1953, Ethel Rosenberg, by electric chair; and – also in 1953 – Bonnie Heady by gas chamber.
Execution
Montgomery was executed by lethal injection on January 13, 2021, pronounced dead (EST) 1:31 a.m. at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, following a 6–3 ruling from the Supreme Court to deny a stay of execution. When asked if she had any last words she replied "No". Shortly after her death, her lawyer released a statement stating that "The craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight. Everyone who participated in the execution of Lisa Montgomery should feel shame."
Popular culture
The case was described in the books Baby Be Mine, by author Diane Fanning, and Murder in the Heartland by M. William Phelps. The case was also featured in an episode of the true crime series Deadly Women titled "Fatal Obsession", and in the fifth episode of the documentary series No One Saw a Thing that aired on the Sundance Channel on August 29, 2019.
OTHER LINKS:
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca8/08-1780/081780p-2011-04-05.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_executed_by_the_United_States_federal_government
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