On 12th January 2021 the US government planned to kill Lisa Montgomery by lethal injection; she would have been the first woman since 1953 to receive the federal death penalty in the USA. She was arrested in 2004 after she strangled a pregnant woman, cut her unborn baby from her abdomen, and then kidnapped the child to pass it off as her own.
TRAUMATIC CHILDHOOD AND MENTAL HEALTH
However abhorrent her crime was, it must be placed into the context of her tragic and traumatic life. Lisa’s parents were alcoholics and she was raised in a deprived and violent household. Reported to have suffered brain damage as a child, she was a victim of sex trafficking and physical abuse, has a genetic predisposition to mental health problems, and has since been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative personality disorder. Yet all this mental strain went unrecognised and her mental health un-investigated - until after she was arrested and detained.
Lisa has taken full responsibility for her crime. Since being in prison she has been able to receive the help she needed in the first place, to begin to stabilise her mental health. Yet psychological reports, which stated that she was psychotic when she committed the murder and that her childhood trauma could explain her behaviour as an adult, were ridiculed in court. Her legal team’s attempts to have these arguments weighed in her sentencing were dismissed as ‘abuse excuse’. Instead her poor personal hygiene and unkempt home were used to degrade her character - as a person and as a mother.
As for the ‘abuse excuse’ accusation: examining a suspect’s mental health history and unfortunate background is the very opposite of looking for an ‘excuse’. No, it is a search for a partial ‘explanation’ at least.
Capital punishment is a divisive subject. Lisa’s crime was abhorrent. But regardless of what one believes about the death penalty, surely it isn’t right to execute someone who committed their crime whilst seriously mentally ill?
UPDATE
With just hours to go before Lisa’s planned death, a Judge granted a stay of execution. Her legal team had presented evidence of her alleged incompetence to understand the rationale for her execution and now a hearing will take place in the coming days to determine whether this is true.
This is crucial timing: there are only eight days until President Trump steps down, and President-elect Biden has let it be known that he would seek an end to the federal death penalty once in office. However, we cannot become complacent and stop our campaigning, not least because Lisa’s hearing may yet occur before the administration changes over.
This is not just for Lisa. It is for the benefit of the significant proportion of the world’s 11 million detainees who committed their crimes whilst seriously mentally ill. Meanwhile, let’s continue to pray for all involved or touched by this terribly difficult case - most especially the family of Lisa’s victim, Bobbie Jo Stinnett.
Letter to POTUS
Mr President,
Sir, your administration permitted Lisa Montgomery - a woman who committed a heinous crime whilst chronically mentally ill after a lifetime of severe social injustice - to be put forward for execution during the closing, supposedly ‘lame duck’ days of your presidency.
We suggest respectfully that the death penalty is unnecessarily politicised in the USA and we feel that this scheduling is suggestive of political manoeuvring. Yet, reaching far beyond mere suggestion, the last few days have demonstrated solidly that passions boil over, people over-reach themselves, and allegiances switch - in politics and in personal lives.
Compassion is not the weakened flailing of a lame duck - rather it is the decisive stroke of a strong man. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour in who you profess faith, commanded us so: ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you’ (Luke 1:37-38).
Due to a last-minute stay of execution for a psychiatric assessment, Lisa is still alive - for the moment. Simultaneously, for the next few days you are still the most powerful man on Earth. When we stand up in God’s court room, we will all need forgiveness. I will. Lisa will. You will too.
So Sir, please do the strong thing.
Yours respectfully
Dr Rachael Pickering
Medical Director
Integritas Healthcare, the faith-inspired INGO with a heart for detainees