Part of HuffPost Crime. Lawyer Kelley Henry says one of the things that disturbs her most is that adults in positions of authority were told about what was going on but did nothing. 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. Her children were disturbed by it. The question is, should she be put to death for it. Babies born naturally tend to have misshapen heads initially because of the pressure experienced as they go through the birth canal, he said. "Come on, baby. The cold, vicious, calculating and brutal nature of her crimes shows that Montgomery knew exactly what she was doing, Strong said. He threatened to rape our little sister if Lisa resisted and said he would kill her whole family if she told anyone. Thats happened since Montgomery's childhood, when theterror she experienced while being raped forced her to retreat emotionally into an imaginary house,where everything is fine, Henry said. "She was really the first one to have a decent marriage, you know, and I guess looking at Bobbie Jo was like, what your dreams were when you were younger.". Mattingly and Montgomery were best friends. Lisa Montgomery's current legal team has conducted some 450 interviews with family members, friends, case workers, doctors and social workers. They were also physically violent. Other inmates tended to keep Montgomery at arm's length because of the brutality of what she had done, Dorr said, but she liked Montgomery's quiet nature. It was clear that she was traumatized, that she was somewhere else, he said. "I looked to my right and there was Lisa Montgomery on the sofa, holding the baby," he said. Only 18 death sentences were handed down in 2020 and the number of executions carried out hit a 30-year low. "It was violent and like a scene out of a horror movie," he said. On the ride home, she clamped the umbilical cord and cleaned the baby girl with wipes. "Maybe she could have been saved, too. [N]ot only was it bizarre behavior, but it was very embarrassing for me as her daughter, she said. We lived in a house of horrors. Facebook gives people the. They also discovered that Shaughnessy prostituted. "Bobbie deserves to be here today. 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. U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner upheld the jury's recommendation the following April. Being loved unconditionally helped me heal, find a caring husband, and raise two children who have hearts of gold. As Montgomery grew up, court records say, observersnoticed that she increasingly appeared to be "spaced out," "not emotionally present" or in "her own little world.". Melvern residents want that perception to end, she said. I didn't know what to do or how to talk to my sister about it.". When Lisa Montgomery murdered pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett and ripped her unborn baby from her womb, the whole world reeled in horror. He recalled that Montgomery begged him not to tell anyone, for fear that Kleiner would kill her. . 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. The judge reached no conclusion aboutwhether sexual activity occurred but said he considered it "inexcusable" that Shaughnessy didn't report the situation to authorities and get counseling for Montgomery. If Mattinglycould speak directly to Trump, she said, she would tell him: "Please dont take my sister. For Diane Mattingly, there is one moment from her childhood for which she feels both enormous gratitude and guilt. Both became infected with COVID-19, believing it to be transmitted duringthe prison visit. Montgomerys legal team is fighting against the clock to gather the information needed for her clemency petition, which has been complicated by the coronavirus crisis. But none of those other victims responded by killing a woman and cutting her baby out of her stomach, hesaid. Join Facebook to connect with Judy Shaughnessy and others you may know. Mattingly and Montgomery lived together until Mattingly was eight and her half-sister was four. Montgomerys mother, Judy Shaughnessy, who was 20 at the time of her birth in 1968, drank heavily while pregnant with her daughter. I cant understand why they have to kill this woman, knowing her background and everything that happened, he said. Nationwide, only 54 women have been executed since 1900. We cant travel to talk to witnesses or to prepare experts at this point, Harwell, Montgomerys lawyer, said. But they were what we come to understand as neuro-physiological adaptations to survive being constantly under assault.. She was quiet and kind, they say. Theyre saying that a sentence of life without the possibility of parole is more than sufficient punishment for someone who has endured what she did.. Other friends of Kleiner, including a plumber and an electrician, raped her in that shed, Montgomery says, as a way of collecting payment for work done around the house. And nowhere is that support more palpably felt in this case than in Skidmore. Patterson was transferred after Montgomerys birth to Fort Riley inKansas, where their family lived when another daughter was born in 1970. Mattingly said she and Montgomery share the same father, John Patterson, a decorated Vietnam War veteran whonever married Mattingly's mother. The tiny farming town of Skidmore sits in the far northwest corner of Missouri. "I think that side of Lisa needs to be out there.". He thanked the sheriff for recovering his daughter and allowing him to be the parent that his wife couldn't be. Montgomery was psychotic at the time of the crime, Harwell said. She was forced to sit in a high chair for hours if she did not finish her food. After their biological father left the home, Mattingly says they were left alone with Shaughnessy's boyfriends, at least one of whom started raping Mattingly. Her mother and father, teachers at school who suspected abuse, and the courts who learned of her victimization when she was a teen and did nothing. She faked pregnancies several times during her marriages to Carl Boman and Kevin Montgomery, court records say. That could change in Terre Haute. In Trumps final days in office, Lisa Montgomery a mentally ill victim of sex trafficking is set to be the first woman the U.S. executes in 70 years. - Sandra Babcock, faculty director of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Montgomery, who confessed, was later sentenced to death for the , The Trump administration announced it was. Mattingly said her heart sank when she realized Montgomery wasn't coming with her. More recently, the states that have been carrying out executions, such as Texas and Tennessee, have halted and delayed executions because of the pandemic. Today there is a single restaurant and few of the streets are paved. He was in her. If you were to meet her, it would be inconceivable to you that she committed this crime, Harwell said. In 1986, when Montgomery was 18, she married her stepbrother, Carl Boman. Montgomery, her sister said, was repeatedly failed: by the deputy sheriff who was told of her abuse; by the judge who was aware she was being molested; by her trial. Montgomery lamented that she couldn't be present to console them because she was in solitary confinement, said Dorr, Montgomery's friend since they met in a federal prison in 2006. Henry said Montgomery was expected to be transferred by Jan. 10 to the penitentiary at TerreHaute, Ind., her designated place of execution. On her way out the door, Mattingly said, Shaughnessy leaned over and told her it was all her fault she was being taken away. Montgomery strangled Stinnett into unconsciousness, then sliced into her stomach with the steak knife, Strong said. 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. All the while, Lisa's mother was being paid to let strange men rape Lisa. A herd of rat terriers greeted them. . He threatened to expose the imagined pregnancy and use it against her in the custody battle. If you or someone you know needs support for issues about emotional distress, these organisations may be able to help. In late December, Montgomery's legal team submitted a petition to President Donald Trump that makes the case that after a lifetime of abuse - which they characterise as torture - she is too mentally ill to be executed and deserves mercy. She went home with a newborn, one she acquired by murdering the babys pregnant mother. Her mother, Judy Shaughnessy, beat and tormented all of her children, proudly telling an investigator that her daughter's first sentence was "Don't spank me, it hurts." Montgomery's first stepfather . "While my path to healing was very hard, the difference between Lisa and me is that no one ever intervened to rescue Lisa from a lifetime of abuse.". In a letterin late November written with a black crayon, Montgomery told Dorr that other inmates at Carswell took it "really hard" when her execution date was set. Her lawyers had argued she was a mentally ill victim of abuse who. In closing arguments, assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Whitworth asked the jury to think about Stinnett's daughter, Victoria Jo Stinnett. "She seemed like a real personI could connect with and build a relationship with inside prison," Dorr said. 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. I'm bruised, but I'm not broken. She would tell me I had to leave and I couldnt take anything with me because she bought everything, she recalled. When children grow up in a chronic state of fear and terror, their brains adapt to survive, explained Katherine Porterfield, a clinical psychologist at the Bellevue/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture, who has evaluated Montgomery in prison. The idea that that evidence of her bad mothering is part of what the jury could rely upon as a reason to sentence her to death its something you would never find in a case of a man.. Lisa's and my father was also mentally ill. She also told one of her stepbrothers about the sexual abuse around that time. 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. Jurors heard an audiotape of Harper, Stinnett's mother, calling 911 after finding her body. Another case with Missouri ties. That could change in Terre Haute. Montgomery contacted Stinnett, 23, after meeting her at a dog show earlier that year at Abilene, in north-central Kansas, where they posed with others in a photo. Jack also raped Lisa for years. Mattingly said she shielded her half-sister from random baby-sitters, often older men, whom their mother left with them during her near-nightly outings to a local bar. Court records describe her as a quiet loner who spent a lot of time reading books. ", Strong said he arranged for that message to be shared with the four others, "because we were all a part of that.". "Oh, they're here, I've got to go," she said. Lisa Montgomery and her half-sister Diane Mattingly as children, Judy Shaughnessy, Lisa Montgomery's mother, Bobbie Jo Stinnett's home lies empty today, Protest against federal executions of death row inmates - outside the US Justice Department, Washington DC, December 2020. It makes him even angrier that it was Stinnett's mother who discovered her that way. "God, no, please," she said. The couple had four children in five years, but the relationship was not the escape from violence that Montgomery might have hoped it would be. The population hovers around just 250, and everyone knew Bobbie Jo Stinnett and her family. 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. 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. Prosecutors said Montgomery was faking mental illness, notingthat many people are sexually abused, but few go on to kill. Stinnett bled to death. In fact, he drove her back home and dropped her off in the hands of her abusers. They recommended a sentence of death. A generation ago, it was the kind of place where you could "get your hair cut, see a show, buy rabbit feed and eat dinner" - but those days are long gone. They have been joined by a chorus of supportive voices from the legal field, including 41 former and current prosecutors, as well as human rights entities like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. They believe that at the time of the crime, Montgomery was psychotic and out of touch with reality. And then go, 'Stand there and listen to the 911 call of [Stinnett's mother]. At 1:31 AM on Wednesday, Lisa Montgomery was pronounced dead. School friend Baumli says she's read the descriptions of Montgomery's abuse, but it mostly just makes her angry. I am begging that somebody will finally stand up for her and say, shes been punished enough.. As Fritz patted Montgomery on the back of her hand, Strong said he noticed dried blood and tissue embedded beneath her fingernails. Often, theyd physically fight, and Mattingly would try to protect Montgomery from the chaos. And theyre taking me away from her.. Multiple medical experts have given statements agreeing with that diagnosis. Mattingly's biggest regret, she said, is that she didnt tell her foster family about being beaten and raped, because she feared they wouldn't want her any more if she did. Shaughnessy has since died. 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. During divorce proceedings, Shaughnessy admitted to the court that she had walked in on her husband raping Montgomery. "Last year, we got flowers, and gave her a $100-plus gift card and then paid her water bill," says Jena Baumli. You know, like, that doesn't happen to Bobbie," Morrow says. Shaughnessy sat so unmoved during her daughter's testimony that the judge reprimanded her for lacking empathy. Montgomery's mother, Judy Shaughnessy, who was 20 at the time of her birth in 1968, drank heavily while pregnant with her daughter. Montgomery's number of crayons and pieces of paper hassince been increased to 10 each. Nobody has said that Lisa should never have been punished. "And Lisa deserves to pay.". The Trump administration announced it was reinstating executions last summer after an almost 20-year hiatus. As a result of her sexual torture, Lisa began to dissociate. Montgomery suffered from pseudocyesis, the false belief she was pregnant, jurors heard from Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, director of the Center of Brain and Cognition at the University of California in San Diego. The judge in the case scolded Shaughnessy for not reporting the abuse - but did not report the abuse himself. She has writtenopinion piecespublished in Elle and Newsweek. She has been let down over and over and over again by people in authority, people who were supposed to be caretakers for her, Mattingly said. Babcock noted that while at least a dozen other women across the U.S. have committed a similar crime in the past 20 years killing a pregnant woman to kidnap her baby Montgomery was the only one sentenced to death. But Strong says this is the first year he's heard directly from Stinnett's husband. Montgomery, who confessed, was later sentenced to death for the especially heinous murder as decided by a jury who heard her trial. "The Lisa I knew was a good person who cared about the other women in the pod and was quiet and generous and kind," Dorr said. They introduced her as their daughter, Abigail, and made multiple other stops. While the court admonished her for not reporting it to authorities, they did not report it either. Shaughnessy's nephew, David Kidwell, testified that she believed Montgomery "had brought [the abuse] on herself, that she enticed him". "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.". "They put her on suicide watch to keep her from killing herself, so that they can execute her," she said. She got into multiple car accidents, struggled to keep a job, moved around constantly, drank heavily, engaged in sex work and neglected her children. It is extremely rare for women to be sentenced to death, said Sandra Babcock, faculty director of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide and an expert on women and the death penalty. At state level, the number of sentences and executions continues a historic decline. She has exhausted all legal options. 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