First Female Death Row Inmate Executed Since 1953
Defense Attorney Claims "Grew Up Abused," Request for Reduced Sentence Due to Mental Illness Denied
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-ju] Lisa Montgomery (50), who killed a pregnant woman and stole the fetus from her womb, has been sentenced to death.
On the 13th (local time), local media such as the Daily Mail reported that a female prisoner was executed for the first time in 67 years in the United States.
The execution carried out at the Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary in Indiana was done by lethal injection.
Montgomery was caught by the police after killing a 23-year-old pregnant woman in Skidmore, Missouri, in December 2004 and stealing her 8-month-old fetus.
It was investigated that Montgomery tried to deceive others by pretending the abducted child was her own. Fortunately, the kidnapped child survived and was reunited with the father.
She was indicted for this crime and sentenced to death in 2008.
Since then, executions were postponed as successive presidents avoided carrying out the death penalty, but the Trump administration resumed federal executions, which had been halted for 17 years, starting in July 2020. The execution plan for Montgomery was announced in October.
Montgomery's attorneys requested a commutation to life imprisonment, arguing that "Montgomery suffers from brain damage and mental illness caused by sexual abuse by her stepfather and mother during childhood," but the request was denied.
Montgomery was sexually assaulted multiple times from the age of 11, forced into prostitution from the age of 15, and although she married as an adult, she reportedly suffered from her husband's violence.
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