Lisa Montgomery: Execution stay lifted for woman who strangled pregnant woman and cut out her unborn baby
An execution stay for Lisa Montgomery has been lifted by a federal appeals court. Montgomery is the first woman on federal death row in the last 70 years. She was awarded the death sentence after being found guilty of cutting an unborn baby out of a pregnant woman and murdering her, CrimeOnline reported. This follows after the US District Court Judge Randolph Moss canceled an order under which Montgomery was expected to be executed on January 12. The December execution was postponed because two of the felon’s lawyers got infected with the coronavirus.
According to the Federal Register website, “The Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons or his designee shall notify the prisoner under sentence of death of the manner of execution and the date designated for execution at least 20 days in advance, except when the date follows a postponement of fewer than 20 days of a previously scheduled and noticed execution, in which case the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons or his designee shall notify the prisoner as soon as possible.” Judge Moss also said earlier that there was no need to reschedule the execution as a stay was in place.
However, now a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Friday, January 1, that Montgomery will be executed on January 12. The court also said it was a mistake from Moss’ side when he called off Montgomery’s date of execution.
Montgomery is responsible for the death of a 23-year-old pregnant woman, named Bobbie Jo Stinnett. The murderer cut out the victim’s unborn child using a carving knife, at her home in Skidmore, Missouri, on December 16, 2004. At the time, the 52-year-old was faking her pregnancy and met Stinnett online while showing fake interest in buying a dog. The duo met at the victim’s house to purchase a rat terrier. However, as per the investigators, when Montgomery reached Stinnett’s home, strangled her with a rope and cut her womb to take out the baby. Stinnett was found bleeding by her mother, Becky Harper, who called 911 on the fateful day and said: “She is laying on the floor with blood everywhere. She was pregnant… It’s like her guts have exploded or something.”
Montgomery ran with the girl child and pretended that she belonged to her. She was soon arrested at her home in Melvern, Kansas, when she was cradling the victim’s child and watching an Amber alert on television issued for the tot. Cops gave the little girl to her father.
Earlier, Montgomery’s lawyers have argued that her dark and traumatic past is partly responsible for her disturbing present. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that the woman has permanent brain damage since birth because of her mother’s excessive alcohol drinking during pregnancy. As a kid, she was also tortured and abused, and not just that, at the age of 15, her mother forced her into sex trafficking. But the government said Montgomery is “not entitled to micromanage the conditions of her confinement for her own comfort and convenience.”