Lisa Montgomery was the only woman on federal death row in the United States (US) and on Wednesday, at 08:31 (01:31 PST), she was executed by lethal injection.
US executes only woman on death row
As reported by BBC News, Montgomery’s execution was held at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, after a last-ditch attempt by her lawyers to save her life was rejected by the US Supreme Court.
BREAKING: US Supreme Court allows execution of Lisa Montgomery to go ahead
— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) January 13, 2021
Friends and family of the victim, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, welcomed the closure of a case that has haunted them for 17 years.
The horrific crime committed by Lisa Montgomery
In 2004, Montgomery, aged 36 at the time, drove from Kansas to a small settlement in Skidmore, Missouri — a four-hour trip — to meet 23-year-old Stinnet at her home.
The women had built a friendship online over their shared love for dogs and on 16 December of that year, Montgomery arranged to make the drive to Skidmore, to purchase a puppy from the eight months pregnant 23-year-old.
Little did Stinnet know, that this was Montgomery’s utterly disturbing plan to rip the unborn child right out of her stomach.
As soon as they were inside Stinnet’s house, she was attacked by Montgomery. The 23-year-old stood no chance. She was overpowered and subsequently choked to death with a rope.
Montgomery then sliced the dead mother’s stomach with a kitchen knife and made off with the baby. She was arrested a day later, after Stinnet’s body was discovered by her family.
Was this Montgomery’s fate?
The criminal trial into the shocking murder and kidnapping attempt dragged on for three years and in 2007, Montgomery was sentenced to death.
Getting the execution approved would take years. Soon after she was found guilty, her defence team and other pro-life civic organisations rallied behind the overturning of her conviction.
Montgomery’s supporters believe her rough childhood played a role in creating the monster grew up to be.
Her family has maintained that the continued abuse she endured under the rule of a father who raped and sodomised her at a young age, and her mother who sold her off as a prostitute to pay bills moulded the 52-year-old into a cold-blooded killer.
However, the US’ justice department maintained that it would be mindless to grant Montgomery a permanent stay of execution after the heinous crime she committed.
These were Lisa Montgomery’s last words
While the execution has divided US in opinion, it seems Montgomery had accepted her fate a long time ago. Asked if she had any last words, the 52-year-old, in a calm and monotonous tone, said, “no.”
Montgomery is the first woman to be executed by the government since 1953.