Woman gave one defiant response as last words before being executed for horrific murder
Warning: contains graphic content
Lisa Montgomery was executed in 2021, but her death will be a topic of debate for years to come.
Montgomery was sentenced to death in 2007, three years after she murdered Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant at the time.
She proceeded to cut out Stinnett's baby from her stomach and later tried to pass off the newborn as her own.
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Montgomery was arrested the next day after the discovery of Stinnett's body. The baby was also retrieved and returned to the family, where the little girl went on to be raised by her father.
A jury later convicted her of murder and kidnapping, and she was ultimately placed on death row.
Fast forward to 2021, and Montgomery was executed by lethal injection at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, just a day after a judge had granted her a stay of execution.
The convicted criminal's lawyers had argued she was mentally incompetent to be executed, saying she was born brain-damaged. A judge ruled that the postponement would 'allow the court to conduct a hearing to determine Ms Montgomery's competence to be executed'.
Judge Hanlon of the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana penned at the time of the decision: "Ms. Montgomery's current mental state is so divorced from reality that she cannot rationally understand the government's rationale for her execution.
"The court will set a time and date for the hearing in a separate order in due course."
But the halting of her execution was quickly overturned by the US Supreme Court, and Montgomery was put to death on January 13.
As with all death row inmates before their executions, they're asked if they have any final words. When asked this, the 52-year-old simply responded with 'no'.
Speaking after her execution, Montgomery's lawyer, Kelley Henry, who had tried to stop her execution, said: "The government stopped at nothing in its zeal to kill this damaged and delusional woman. Lisa Montgomery's execution was far from justice."
Another female death row inmate will be executed next year, that being Christa Gail Pike. Her death, scheduled for September 30, 2026, will mark the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in 200 years.
Pike was found guilty of first-degree murder following the death of Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Pike was just 18 years old at the time of the crime and was placed on death row two years later.
Niamh Shackleton