Who is Lisa Montgomery and why is she facing the death penalty?

Team Udayavani, Oct 19, 2020, 12:19 PM IST

Lisa Montgomery will become the first female inmate to be executed in almost seven decades. The 52-year-old has been on death row since 2008 after being charged with kidnapping resulting in death.

She is convicted of cutting a pregnant woman’s body open before kidnapping her baby is set to be the first inmate who is a woman to be put to death by the American government in more than 60 years.

On 16 December 2004, Montgomery, entered the home of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett whom she had befriended on an online chat forum.

Lisa drove from her Kansas home to Stinnett’s house in Skidmore under the guise of adopting a rat terrier puppy

It is believed that Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, let Montgomery into her home believing her to be a legitimate customer. She was subsequently attacked by Montgomery, who strangled her from behind with a piece of cord then slit open her stomach with a kitchen knife, before removing the unborn baby which she then took home.

She was arrested at her farmhouse in Kansas the following day while the new-born baby girl was returned to its father.

As reported by Indian Express,  In 2007, a US District Court for the Western District of Missouri found Montgomery guilty of federal kidnapping resulting in death and was unanimously recommended a death sentence by the jury. Her appeals and request for collateral relief were rejected by all the courts that considered it.

Her execution by lethal injection is scheduled for December 8. The lethal injection uses a sedative called Pentobarbital that slows down brain activity and the nervous system.

Lisa will be the ninth federal inmate put to death since the Justice Department resumed executions in July after a nearly 20-year hiatus.