Skip to main content

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years.

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years.


Montgomery was the first female prisoner to be executed in by the US government since 1953.
Montgomery, 52, was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital.

The US government executed convicted murderer Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court cleared the last hurdle by overturning a stay.

Challenges were fought across multiple federal courts on whether to allow the execution of Montgomery, 52, who was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate in the Justice Department`s execution chamber at its prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The U.S. Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, cleared the way for her execution after overturning a stay by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Kelley Henry, Montgomery`s lawyer, called the execution "vicious, unlawful, and unnecessary exercise of authoritarian power."

"No one can credibly dispute Mrs. Montgomery`s longstanding debilitating mental disease - diagnosed and treated for the first time by the Bureau of Prisons` own doctors," Henry said in a statement.

She was pronounced deceased at 1:31 a.m. EST (0631 GMT) on Wednesday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.

Montgomery was convicted in 2007 in Missouri of kidnapping and strangling Bobbie Jo Stinnett, then eight months pregnant. Montgomery cut Stinnett`s fetus from the womb. The child survived.

Some of Stinnett`s relatives traveled to witness Montgomery`s execution, the Justice Department said.

As the execution process began, asked by a female executioner if she had any last words, Montgomery responded in a quiet, muffled voice, "No," according to a reporter who served as a media witness.

Federal executions had been on pause for 17 years and only three men had been executed by the federal government since 1963 until the practice resumed last year under President Donald Trump, whose outspoken support for capital punishment long predates his entry into politics.

Montgomery`s lawyers asked for Trump`s clemency last week, saying she committed her crime after a childhood in which she was abused and repeatedly raped by her stepfather and his friends, and so should instead face life in prison.

It was one of three executions the U.S. Department of Justice had scheduled for the final full week of Trump`s administration. Two other executions scheduled for Thursday and Friday have been delayed, for now at least, by a federal judge in Washington, to allow the condemned murderers to recover from COVID-19.

The American Civil Liberties Union and some liberal lawmakers had previously opposed the government`s plans to execute Montgomery, with ACLU saying her life had been "marred by unthinkable trauma that resulted in documented brain damage and mental illness".

Montgomery`s execution was the first of 2021 by the federal government and the 11th since last year.

In 2020, the U.S. government executed 10 people and it was for the first time ever that the federal government conducted more executions than all U.S. states combined, according to a database compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Two boys in this photograph from the early 1900s, taken by Dr. Allan Warner of the Isolation Hospital in Leicester

Two boys in this photograph from the early 1900s, taken by Dr. Allan Warner of the Isolation Hospital in Leicester, UK, had been exposed to the same source of smallpox.  One of them had received the smallpox vaccine, while the other had not. Dr. Warner captured these images as part of his study on the disease. The smallpox vaccine holds historical significance as the first vaccine developed to combat a contagious disease.  In 1796, British doctor Edward Jenner demonstrated that an infection with the milder cowpox virus could provide immunity against the deadly smallpox virus.  Cowpox acted as a natural vaccine until the modern smallpox vaccine became available in the 20th century. From 1958 to 1977, the World Health Organization led a global vaccination campaign that successfully eradicated smallpox, marking it as the only human disease to be completely eliminated. Don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
Post a Comment
Read more

THE LEGEND OF TRAPPER NELSON.

THE LEGEND OF TRAPPER NELSON. As you ride up the Loxahatchee River from its mouth in Jupiter, the canopy of slash pines and cabbage palms eventually starts to close in on you. Wildlife hides in the gnarled thickets of mangrove.  Everything about this place feels prehistoric. The turns become more and more hairpin, deceiving and disorienting you, as turtles and alligators eye you wearily before slipping beneath the murky water. Nearly eight miles up the northwest fork of the river, a weathered, wooden boathouse juts out into the dark water: the first sign of human existence seen for miles.  Alongside it is a dock that leads through a bamboo thicket into what was once the heart of wild Florida: Trapper Nelson’s homestead, zoo and jungle garden. The biggest attraction, though, was Trapper himself. Known as Tarzan of the Loxahatchee, he’d wrestle alligators, trap wildcats, and dazzle guests with his infallible good looks and stories of the wild.   He was a man who lived witho...
Post a Comment
Read more

During the Vietnam War, one of the most dangerous jobs was undertaken by a select few known as "tunnel rats."

During the Vietnam War, one of the most dangerous jobs was undertaken by a select few known as "tunnel rats." These unsung heroes were American, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers specially trained as combat engineers, who crawled through Viet Cong underground tunnels to perform perilous covert search and destroy missions.⁠ ⁠ Tunnel rats gently prodded for armed mines in order to disarm them — and prayed that they survived with both their legs intact. Most men were volunteers and tended to be of smaller stature, making it easier for them to maneuver through the cramped subterranean spaces Don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
Post a Comment
Read more