Should Lisa Montgomery Be Granted Clemency?
By: Christina Aliperti
Tags: Murder, Death Penalty, True Crime, Execution

Yesterday, Fancy told us about the case of Lisa Montgomery in her live True Crime Tidbit. If you missed it, here’s what went down:

A couple of weeks ago, Colleen covered the case of Taylor Parker, a woman in Texas who murdered her pregnant friend so that she could steal the baby from her womb and claim it as her own. Today, I’m talking about a similar case that happened 16 years ago in the small Missouri city of Skidmore, population 284. This case has been featured on TV shows, in documentaries and books. One of our favorite true crime writers, Diane Fanning, wrote a book about the case. It’s called Baby Be Mine: The Shocking True Story of a Woman Who Murdered a Pregnant Mother to Steal Her Child.

In 2007, Lisa Marie Montgomery was convicted of “kidnapping resulting in death”. Now 52, She sits on death row awaiting her execution at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute Indiana. If she is executed, she will be the first female inmate in 67 years to be executed by the U.S. federal government.

According to The Guardian, Lisa Montgomery suffered through an abusive childhood and she was raped by her stepfather for many years. When her mom found out, she blamed Lisa and it’s alleged that she held a gun on Lisa who was only 14 at the time. Lisa began to drink heavily at an early age and by 18 she was married as a way to escape her abusive home but the marriage was abusive also. In 1990, by age 22, Lisa had 4 children.

In December 2004, Bobbie Jo Stinnett and her husband Zeb were running a dog breeding business out of their Skidmore, Missouri home and 23 year old Bobbie Jo was 8 months pregnant with their first child. According to News Press Now, Bobbie Jo was an active member of an online Rat Terrier chat room called Ratter Chatter. One of the people she met in the chat room was Lisa Montgomery who was living in Malvern, Kansas. Lisa, using the name Darlene Fischer, told Bobbie Jo that she was also pregnant and the 2 became friendly online, chatting and exchanging emails talking about their pregnancies.

During that time frame, Bobbie Jo was expecting some potential buyers for a dog that she was selling. The New York Times reported that authorities believed that Lisa Montgomery pretended to be interested in buying the dog and set up an appointment to go to Stinnett’s home. On December 16, 2004, Lisa Montgomery went to the home of the Stinnett’s, strangled Bobbie Jo with a bright pink rope and then cut her stomach open with a kitchen knife to remove the baby from her womb. Montgomery then fled the scene with the premature baby.

About an hour after the attack, Becky Harper, Bobbie Jo’s mother, found her and called 911. The scene was brutal. Bobbie Jo was laying in a large amount of blood and her mom is quoted as saying it looked like her stomach had exploded. The emergency workers tried to revive Bobbie Jo but she was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Investigators used several techniques including forensic computer investigation and were able to track Bobbi Jo’s online communications, which led them quickly to Lisa Montgomery. When they arrived at the home of Lisa and her husband Kevin on December 17th, she was holding the baby girl while watching TV. In fact, when the authorities arrived, the AMBER alert for the baby was flashing on the television that Lisa was watching. Lisa Montgomery was arrested and after DNA testing, the baby girl was reunited with her father Zeb Stinnett, who named her Victoria Jo. She was taken to the NICU of Stormont-Vail Regional Medical Center where she was in good condition.

Lisa Montgomery plead not guilty to kidnapping resulting in death and was looking at life in prison or the death penalty if she was convicted. When Montgomery was arrested friends were shocked. Everyone that knew Lisa Montgomery believed she was pregnant and due in December 2004, everyone including her husband and teenage children. After murdering Bobbie Jo, Lisa told everyone that she gave birth to the baby in Topeka and introduced her as Abigail.

As it turns out, Lisa Montgomery had actually had a tubal ligation years earlier and a long history of faking pregnancies since then. Her ex-husband has said that she faked pregnancies while they were together. Her husband Kevin Montgomery also said she faked several pregnancies during their marriage. There is speculation that a miscarriage or stillbirth at some point may have motivated her to commit murder so she could have a baby but it’s not clear when that could have happened since it’s reported that Montgomery’s tubal ligation was done in 1990.

Montgomery was charged with “kidnapping resulting in death” which is a federal crime. The Guardian reported that Montgomery’s lawyers alleged that she had a mental condition that causes a woman to believe she is pregnant and show signs of pregnancy when she isn’t actually pregnant. They had doctors testify that Lisa Montgomery did have the condition known as pseudocyesis and she suffered from depression, borderline personality disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder as well. But, federal prosecutor Roseann Ketchmark and forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz disagreed with the diagnosis of pseudocyesis.

On October 22, 2007, a jury found Montgomery guilty and 4 days later they recommended a death sentence. She was sentenced to death by Judge Gary A. Fenner. In March 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Montgomery’s certiorari petition which asked for a judicial review of the lower court’s decision. Last month, NBC news reported that Lisa Montgomery was officially scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on December 8th 2020. Montgomery is the only woman out of 55 prisoners on Federal Death Row. The last time a woman was executed by the federal govt was in Missouri in 1953 when Bonnie Heady was put to death along with Carl Hall in a gas chamber. Heady and Hall were executed for the kidnapping and murder of 6 year old Bobby Greenlease who was the son of a millionaire.

After Montgomery’s execution date was announced, one of Montgomery’s attorneys, Kelley Henry, released this statement:

“Few human beings have lived through the kind of torture and trauma that was inflicted on Lisa Montgomery by her mentally ill, alcoholic mother. From a young age, Lisa was sexually trafficked, told she had to ‘earn her keep,’ and repeatedly gang raped by adult men. The abuses Lisa endured exacerbated a genetic predisposition to mental illness inherited from both sides of her family. She suffers from complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and to this day must maintain a complex regimen of anti-psychotic medications to control her episodic psychosis. “In the grip of her mental illness, Lisa committed a terrible crime. Yet she immediately expressed profound remorse and was willing to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence with no possibility of release. Lisa then was represented at trial by an incompetent lawyer who has the dubious distinction of having more clients on federal death row than any other attorney. He failed to present Lisa’s jury with competent evidence about her traumatic history and severe mental illness, instead presenting pseudo-science through a witness who was not even a licensed mental health professional. And instead of recognizing Lisa as a trafficking victim, the government suggested she was complicit in the incest and abuse she suffered. “Lisa Montgomery has long accepted full responsibility for her crime, and she will never leave prison. But her severe mental illness and the devastating impacts of her childhood trauma make executing her a profound injustice.” Kelley Henry, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Middle District of Tennessee — Attorney for Lisa Montgomery

Lisa Montgomery’s execution date has now been rescheduled for January 12th, 2021. USA Today reported on Tuesday November 24th, that a federal judge delayed the execution of Lisa Montgomery after two of her public defenders contracted severe cases of COVID-19. The delay is meant to allow her attorneys to recover from the virus and file a clemency petition on her behalf.

Lisa’s sister Diane Mattingly spoke with Elle.com and here’s an excerpt from that interview: “After Lisa was found guilty in 2007, I testified at her sentencing hearing. She looked so much like my eldest daughter, with the same sea-green eyes, recessed chin, and high cheekbones. It didn’t take long for the jury to decide her fate. The next day, Lisa was sentenced to die. I screamed until I couldn’t scream any more. Didn’t the jury understand that she is ill? It’s hard to keep track of all the times she has been let down by people she’s supposed to trust. Her mom and her dad. Her school teachers. The police. Social Services. Me. Now her government was failing her, too. My heart goes out to the family of Bobbie Jo, of course it does, but we need to break the chain of evil actions.”

On the surface, it’s easy to look at this case and how horrific Bobbie Jo’s murder was and say that Lisa Montgomery deserves the death penalty. However, this is one of the cases that have made me have second thoughts about the death penalty. There was a time when I was okay with the death penalty and I honestly didn’t give much thought to it. I felt that if someone was convicted of a crime and sentenced to death, they must deserve it, right? Now, my thoughts are so much different. I think about the wrongfully convicted now and also the mental health of those that were convicted of a crime they did commit.

Hearing about the murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett was heartbreaking. She was a young woman, excited to be a mother for the first time, starting a family with her husband. Her happy ending was torn away in a brutal and bloody murder. Then, I learned some of what Lisa Montgomery had suffered through since she was just a little girl and my heart broke even more. She was a child that needed help and nobody helped her. She grew up and did something terrible and criminal, but does she deserve to be put to death for her crime? I don’t think that I can answer yes to that question anymore. Her sister is right in saying that everyone failed Lisa and I feel that putting her to death would be the ultimate failure.

What I can say is that we need more focus on mental health and getting people the help that they need. In the criminal justice system, so many of those convicted of crimes are suffering from mental illness and never get the help that they need. It’s a vicious cycle that needs to be changed and I think no matter your opinion on the death penalty, that’s something that most of us can agree on.

We will keep you updated on any developments or changes in this case and for more true crime check out our YouTube channel, Murder By Design and our podcast, The Good Wives Guide To True Crime.