The Only Woman on Federal Death Row, Executed Despite Severe Mental Illness
Case summary
In December 2004 Montgomery strangled Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, at her home in Skidmore, Missouri, and cut the baby from her womb; the infant survived and was returned to her father. Montgomery was convicted in federal court in 2007 and sentenced to death. Her lawyers, her family and international human rights bodies argued that her severe mental illness, dissociative episodes and history of extreme sexual violence and trafficking made execution unlawful, and pointed to pseudocyesis as the delusional context of the offence. Litigation continued through the night before her execution. She was put to death on January 13, 2021 — the first woman executed by the United States federal government since 1953. Witnesses described her as bewildered at the gurney; her lawyers said she was dissociating.
Mental-health context
The Federal Bureau of Prisons itself diagnosed Montgomery with bipolar disorder, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, with symptoms including dissociation and loss of contact with reality. She experienced episodes of pseudocyesis — a false but physically convincing belief that she was pregnant. Her clemency petition documented that she was repeatedly raped from age 11 and trafficked into prostitution at 15, with lasting brain damage and complex trauma. UN human rights experts publicly called for clemency on mental health grounds.
Status / outcome
Convicted 2007; executed by the federal government January 13, 2021
Sources
- https://dpw.lawschool.cornell.edu/advocacy/the-case-of-lisa-montgomery/
- https://19thnews.org/2021/01/lisa-montgomery-first-woman-executed-federal-government-since-1953/
- https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/12/un-experts-call-clemency-lisa-montgomery-after-us-government-reschedules
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