Another case with Missouri ties. Lisa Montgomery tried to get counseling the year before she killed Stinnettbut wasn'tconnected to a quality provider, her attorneys said. Residents there tend to think her execution would bring an appropriate end to a painful chapter in their city's history, he said. "The whole community over there's traumatised by this.". Although the alumni have scattered somewhat, in recent years, the Nodaway-Holt R-VII High School graduating class of 2000 - which had only 22 members - has a tradition to mark the anniversary of the death of their classmate Bobbie Jo Stinnett. The population hovers around just 250, and everyone knew Bobbie Jo Stinnett and her family. He also noted that after she confessed to killing Stinnett, she changed her story to contend the murder was committed by her half-brotherTommy Kleiner. "I was like, 'Oh, she was not.' After she gave birth to four children, Judy pressured Lisa into an involuntary sterilization. Her lawyers say that as she lost touch with reality, she fantasised about being pregnant. A few years after Mattingly was removed from the home, when Montgomery was in kindergarten, her mother remarried a man named Jack Kleiner. Both became infected with COVID-19, believing it to be transmitted duringthe prison visit. I am begging that somebody will finally stand up for her and say, shes been punished enough.. Stinnett came to, grabbing at Montgomery's knife and pulling out somehair before Montgomery strangledher to death. "When I squeezed her hand, she looked at me and smiled," she said. They gave me unconditional love, they taught me my self-worth, she said. If you or someone you know needs support for issues about emotional distress, these organisations may be able to help. Montgomery's execution date was subsequently bumped back to Jan. 12. Prosecutors shared records showing Montgomery had visited a website featuring a video of a live C-section birth, described as lasting from first cut to last stitch, and had made a practice run by driving the roughly 350 miles from Melvern to Skidmore and back the day before the killing. U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner upheld the jury's recommendation the following April. Montgomery then said she had given birth at home with help from two female friends and, later, that she had given birth alone. Bobbie Jo's mother and husband have have not spoken publicly in many years. Her daughter remembered her acting like a young child in public, twirling and skipping with her arms swinging with abandon. According to her lawyers and witnesses, Montgomery suffered years of childhood abuse so severe it was akin to torture. On her way out the door, Mattingly said, Shaughnessy leaned over and told her it was all her fault she was being taken away. ", More: Only woman on federal death row asks President Trump to be a 'hero,' commute her sentence. She lives in Lebanon, Ky., is married with two adult children and has worked the past 19 years for the state of Kentucky. According to Gallup, while support for the death penalty in the US is at its lowest level in more than 50 years, 55% of Americans still believe it is an appropriate punishment for murder. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. "Judy was manipulative and - I hate to use this word, but - evil. On December 8, the federal government plans to execute her for a crime she committed in the grip of severe mental illness after a lifetime of living hell. She got into multiple car accidents, struggled to keep a job, moved around constantly, drank heavily, engaged in sex work and neglected her children. She struggles to maintain her own hygiene, loses focus during conversations with others and has trouble planning simple tasks.". Montgomery first claimed to have had the baby at a Topeka birthing center but began changing her story after investigatorsseparated her from her husband and the infant, Strong said. She describes Montgomery's ex-husband as cruel and harassing. Stinnett lived with her husband, Zeb, in Skidmore, Mo., a town near the state's northwest corner with fewerthan 300 people today. "Maybe she could have been saved, too. Many there believe the final moments of Bobbie Jo Stinnett were so horrific, the death sentence is warranted. Ms. Ms. Montgomery has bipolar disorder, temporal lobe epilepsy, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorder, psychosis, traumatic brain injury and most likely fetal alcohol syndrome. As a teenager, Montgomery confided in her cousin, a deputy sheriff, that she was being raped by Kleiner and other men orally, vaginally and anally. They were also physically violent. I was put in foster care with a wonderful family. In fact, he drove her back home and dropped her off in the hands of her abusers. Her lawyers had argued she was a mentally ill victim of abuse who deserved mercy. Mattingly and Montgomery were best friends. The nature and circumstances of Montgomerys crime show she had lost touch with reality, says her half-sister, Diane Mattingly. Henry said Montgomery seemed out of touch with reality when Henry and Harwell, who work in Tennessee, traveled by plane to visit her in October and early November at Fort Worth. Judy drank throughout her pregnancy with Lisa and caused her to be born with brain damage. Porterfield compared the chronic abuse to pouring lighter fluid onto a spark. "This was the act of a monster," he said. Today, residents are tired of Melvernbeing connected with Lisa Montgomery, said current Mayor Lyndon Weddle, who describesMelvern asafriendlyrural community where people wave when they pass each other. Court records describe her as a quiet loner who spent a lot of time reading books. As her attorneys fight for her life, Montgomery has at times seemed out of touch with reality,Henry said:Hermental illness causesher to disconnectwhen life becomes too terrible to endure. Judy Shaughnessy, drank during pregnancy. Henry said there is no question that Montgomery has severe mental illness, noting that federal authorities have administered her antipsychotic medications since her arrest in 2004. Montgomerys family tree, on both her mother and fathers side, is filled with psychiatric and neurologic impairment, including mood disorders, intellectual disability, PTSD and schizophrenia. The U.S. has not executed a woman in 67 years. Shaughnessy beat her children with belts, cords and hangers, put them in cold showers and put duct tape over Montgomery's mouth to silence her, the attorneys said. DNA testing later showed they were Stinnett's. At least five of the 12 jurors and three alternate jurorswiped away tears. Montgomery was left behind with her mother. A lifetime of sexual torture causes her to lose touch with reality. But my hope is President Trump will stop Lisa's execution and commute her sentence to life in prison. But they were what we come to understand as neuro-physiological adaptations to survive being constantly under assault.. One theory her lawyers put forward regarding the chain of events that led to the murder, is that Montgomery feared her ex-husband would expose her lies about being pregnant and use it against her as he sought custody of their children. Back home, the couple announced the birth of their daughter to their friends and relatives. Montgomery said she was seeking a dog for a Christmas gift. Montgomery was represented briefly after her arrest by Ron Wurtz, a now-retired attorney who has represented dozens of capital case defendants. "They made this a priority at the risk of the health and lives of corrections officials, of the prisoners on death row, and the communities that all of those Bureau of Prisons officials who flew in from across the country were returning to," says Ngozi Ndulue, senior director of research and special projects at the Death Penalty Information Center. When she was 18, Montgomery married her stepbrother. She had bought supplies, including a home birth kit, and searched online for how to perform a caesarean section. In the other cases, she said, prosecutors opted not to seek the death penalty or juries did not impose it because it was obvious the women were suffering from profound mental illnesses. Montgomery also talked about the abuseshe had endured from her stepfather, Jack Kleiner, and the first of her two husbands, Carl Boman, Dorr said. She credits this moment for her "fairly normal" life - a house on eight peaceful acres, a loving relationship with her children, nearly two decades at a job working for the state of Kentucky. Mattingly and Montgomery lived together until Mattingly was eight and her half-sister was four. He had a daughter from a previous relationship, Diane, who was four years older than Montgomery. Her story quickly fell apart and she confessed to the killing. The tiny farming town of Skidmore sits in the far northwest corner of Missouri. We cant travel to talk to witnesses or to prepare experts at this point, Harwell, Montgomerys lawyer, said. According to an interview with her father, Montgomery's mother Judy Shaughnessy drank heavily throughout her pregnancy, and their daughter was born with foetal alcohol syndrome. On the ride home, she clamped the umbilical cord and cleaned the baby girl with wipes. She was broken by people who were supposed to be her caregivers. JUDY SHAUGHNESSY OBITUARY Judy K. Shaughnessy Judy K. Shaughnessy, 66, Topeka, formerly of Lyndon, entered into the kingdom of heaven Saturday, November 2, 2013 at Midland Hospice House. "My sister was crying and in pain. After playing with the dogs in the backyard that day, Montgomery strangled Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, who was pregnant, and cut open her abdomen to remove her 8-month-old fetus. Montgomery told investigators she was surprised at how nicely they had treated her, considering what she had done. But Lisa was broken. The baby girl survived, andMontgomery took her home and briefly passed her off as her own until investigators arrested her the next day. The question is, should she be put to death for it. I didn't know what to do or how to talk to my sister about it.". I thought they knew what was going on, she said. She was quiet and kind, they say. I didn't know what to do or how to talk to my sister about it.". . "Come on, baby. At that time, Montgomery was awaiting trial. Montgomery gave birth to three daughters and a son from1987 to1990, court records say. Ramachandran said women who sufferchildhood sexual abuse and whose minds revolve around babies and pregnancy are predisposed to suffering pseudocyesis, a condition in which they show physical symptoms of pregnancy, including enlargement of the breasts and stomach, morning sickness and cravings for certain foods. Her lawyers had argued she was a mentally ill victim of abuse who. The girls father was often away from the house for long periods, and Shaughnessy would have other men over. Montgomery graduated in 1986 from high school at Cleveland, Okla., with hopes of joining the Air Force to earn money for college. It turns out that it only takes a few people to save a child's life: being loved by my foster parents saved mine. About a week before Christmas in 2004, Lisa Montgomery, a 36-year-old mother of four, drove from her home in Kansas to Missouri, ostensibly to buy a rat terrier puppy from a woman shed met at a dog show earlier that year. The girls' biological father left the home, and after a while, Mattingly was whisked away to foster care. The next morning, Lisa and Kevin Montgomery showed off a newborn girl dressed in a pink bonnet as they ate breakfast at the Whistle Stop Cafe in downtown Melvern. Though capital case defendants tend to be confused and stunned, those emotions were heightened with Montgomery, who had trouble responding to questions, Wurtz said. Lisa Montgomery, who endured years of sexual and physical abuse, murdered an expectant mother and took the baby. She testified as. Emotions ran high in 2007 as Montgomery was tried in federal court for kidnapping resulting in death. In an interview with HuffPost her first ever Diane Mattingly, now 57 and a longtime state government employee living in Kentucky, described what it was like growing up in a home without love or affection. Montgomery became the first female federal prisoner executed in 67 years, the first woman executed in the United States since Kelly Gissendaner in 2015, and the first person executed in the United States in 2021. Montgomery was also prone to delusional thinking. After she strangled Stinnett, Montgomery is alleged to have cut her open and stolen her unborn child Victoria, who survived the attack and is now living with her father. He threatened to expose the imagined pregnancy and use it against her in the custody battle. Just the details: What you need to know about Montgomery and her victim, Bobbie Jo Stinnett. Montgomerys father, John Patterson, a 25-year-old in the military, was also an alcoholic. "One sister got taken out and got put into a loving home and was nurtured and had time to heal," says Mattingly. In recommending execution, the jury spelled out six aggravating factors supporting capital punishment. More: Why the fate of the only woman on federal death row hinges on these Tennessee attorneys and their health, "Lisas trauma was so severe that it compromised her neurological functioning and development," they said in a written statement. Montgomerys entire life was marked by people who failed to protect her, Babcock said. Moving often was the norm to Montgomery; by the time she was a teenager, she had moved approximately 16 times. "This was a very coordinated and determined plan to ensure that as many people could be executed on federal death row as possible before the end of this administration term.". She lived at 61 addresses in the 36 years before she went to prison, court documents show. 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