Buried beneath the avalanche of reports about a potential Presidential impeachment, rising COVID cases and the botched vaccine roll out, was news of the death of Lisa Montgomery, the 52-year-old sole female prisoner on federal death row. Montgomery was executed by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, after the Supreme Court at midnight overruled lower court stays and President Trump ignored a clemency petition.
Montgomery was convicted of strangling 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in 2004 and cutting the 8-month fetus from her womb in an attempt to pass the baby off as her own. Her death represented the first execution of a female inmate in 67 years and the 40th overall since the U.S. Justice Department revived federal executions in 2019 after a 16-year hiatus.
How could you say anything but that the murder of Stinnett was horrific, in every conceivable way. (The baby, a girl, survived and, now 16, lives with her father.) It is unfathomable how anyone “in their right mind” could conceive of carrying out such an act.
But that’s just the point. Lisa Montgomery was not in any kind of “right mind” on the day she drove from Kansas to Missouri, ostensibly to purchase a puppy from Stinnett, a dog breeder. And she hadn’t been for pretty much all of her tortured life.
Her attorney, Kelley Henry, argued throughout court proceedings that Montgomery’s shocking act had to be considered in the context of her deeply troubled history, which included congenital brain damage (the result of her late mother’s drinking during pregnancy), mental illness, and a lifetime of physical, sexual and emotional abuse and torture, from child trafficking to gang rape.
Raised in an abusive home, where she was allegedly raped by her stepfather for years and trafficked by her mother, she married her stepbrother at 18 to escape, turning to alcohol to self-medicate. Both that marriage and her second were also reportedly abusive as well. She had four children before undergoing a tubal ligation, but falsely claimed to be pregnant several times afterward, including to the husband she remained married to at her death.
Psychiatric examinations in preparation for her trial postulated that she suffered from depression, borderline personality disorder, brain damage, dissociation and post traumatic stress syndrome. She is not known to have had any significant counseling or treatment to address her traumatic and abusive history.
There is no way to excuse Montgomery’s heinous act. But there is a way to understand it. An extensive and ever-growing body of research evidences the devastating impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and the severe and wide-ranging consequences of untreated trauma. (If you know anything about ACES scores, Montgomery’s was a 10.)
Not only was she victimized from infancy, Montgomery was failed throughout her life by every layer of society intended to protect her — her family; her spouses; the social services, healthcare, legal and prison systems, and ultimately the highest court in the land. Not only did her trauma go unacknowledged, she was held accountable for the very brain aberrations it instilled.
No one who has read my mental health work will be surprised to learn I do not support the death penalty. To my mind, it provides no deterrence factor or benefit to society and condones a culture of “an eye for an eye” that makes us no better than savages. But worst of all, it’s an inhumane substitute for our longstanding refusal to prioritize and fund mental health services, something I believe has the single greatest potential to transform our culture and our civilization.
And if you think there have been repercussions in the past, just wait until we start seeing the long-term ramifications on mental health as a result of the pandemic.
As people in mental health circles like to say, “Hurt people hurt people.” A wounded animal will strike out to avoid greater infliction of pain. Lisa Montgomery was so deeply damaged she committed an unthinkable crime. But everyone person and agency that failed her along the way is as responsible for that act as she was.
The American Psychological Association, the National Alliance on Mental illness and Mental Health America have all endorsed resolutions to end the death penalty for people with severe mental illness, calling the practice antithetical to “our evolving standards of decency.”
But when will we insist on that decency? While we’re holding our elected officials accountable for preserving democratic principles and safeguarding our physical health, perhaps we should also be insisting they make trauma-informed mental health practices, from cradle to grave, the national priority they should be.
This case is one of several in a sudden and sick rush to push through a number of questionable executions before the last disgusting but if this administration is gone. The statement from her lawyer rips my heart out:
“The craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight. Everyone who participated in the execution of Lisa Montgomery should feel shame. No one disagrees that Mrs. Montgomery was the victim of unspeakable torture and sex trafficking. 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. Our Constitution forbids the execution of a person who is unable to rationally understand her execution. The current administration knows this. And they killed her anyway. Violating the Constitution, federal law, its own regulations, and longstanding norms along the way.
The government stopped at nothing in its zeal to kill this damaged and delusional woman. After we, her attorneys, contracted COVID-19 during our travels to visit her after her execution was scheduled, the government fought tooth and nail against any delay to allow us to recover so we could represent her effectively. Then they violated the law in multiple ways in rescheduling her execution for the final days of the Trump Administration. As courts agreed Lisa’s case presented important legal issues warranting serious consideration – including whether she was competent to execute – the government hammered onward with appeals.
By insisting on an execution during a pandemic, this administration demonstrated its reckless disregard for human life of innocent citizens. Executions are super-spreader events. The government knows this. Yet, they put the lives of every single person who must participate in these “events” as well as every one of those persons' friends, families, neighbors, co-workers, and who knows how many other people. Because this administration was so afraid that the next one might choose Life over Death, they put the lives and health of US citizens in grave danger. In the midst of all this litigation, Lisa’s request for clemency remained before President Trump. It was supported by thousands of organizations and individuals – faith leaders, anti-violence advocates, conservative leaders, international organizations, and many more. But the President did nothing. He had not even the decency to formally deny – or even acknowledge – Lisa’s clemency application, though it is hard to imagine a case more deserving of executive intervention than this one.
Lisa Montgomery’s execution was far from justice. She should never have faced a death sentence in the first place, as no other woman has faced execution for a similar crime. And Lisa was much more than the tragic crime she committed, a crime for which she felt deep remorse before she lost all touch with reality in the days before her execution. Lisa was also much more than the horrors inflicted upon her, the sexual violence and abuse she endured at the hands of those who were supposed to love, nurture, and protect her.
Lisa was a loving mother, grandmother, and sister who adored her family. She was a devout Christian who loved Christmas and created beautiful angels for those lucky enough to receive her gifts. Lisa often became trapped in the prison of her mind, losing touch with reality for periods of time. But when not gripped by psychosis, she was a gentle and caring person whom I was honored to know and to represent.
Lisa Nouri, Amy Harwell and I represented Mrs. Montgomery for eight years. We loved her very much and she loved us. She honored us with her truth and trusted us to share it in a way that not only told her story, but that could help other women.
Even though President Trump could not be the hero we asked him to be, we are here to say to every woman and girl who has been the victim of violence and degradation: You matter. Your pain matters. You are more than a victim. You are a survivor. Do not let anyone humiliate or shame you. You deserve to be loved.
In the past week, we have seen just how far President Trump and his administration will go in their disdain for justice and the rule of law. This failed government adds itself to the long list of people and institutions who failed Lisa.
We should recognize Lisa Montgomery’s execution for what it was: the vicious, unlawful, and unnecessary exercise of authoritarian power. We cannot let this happen again.”
-Kelley Henry, attorney for Lisa Montgomery
-January 13, 2021
The death penalty is the result of the ultimate deterrent built into the criminal system to make examples of people to prevent crime. It’s a public display to terrify people into following the “rule of law.” But it sidesteps the spirit of criminal law that is confinement is for rehabilitation. So the most horrible people/crimes among us are publicly executed. That’s tragic humanity.