Execution of woman at Fort Worth prison would be unconstitutional, attorneys say
Attorneys for a woman in custody at a federal prison in Fort Worth filed a petition Friday arguing that her execution, scheduled for Tuesday, would be unconstitutional because she is not mentally competent.
Legally, a person has to be competent enough to understand that they will be executed and why. Lisa Montgomery does not have that understanding, her attorneys said in petition for writ of habeas corpus, because she is severely mentally ill and has brain damage due to a lifetime of physical and psychological torture.
“The only real dispute is, is she able to rationally understand why she’s being executed and the reason for her execution,” said Sandra Babcock, faculty director of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide and a consultant to Montgomery’s legal team. “If there is any doubt at all about that question — which there is — then her execution has to be stayed.”
The petition filed Friday includes the professional opinion of two experts — a clinical psychologist who is the leading expert on torture and an expert in neuropsychiatry — who concluded Montgomery does not understand what’s happening to her.
Montgomery, who is in custody at FMC Carswell prison in Fort Worth, was convicted in 2007 of strangling Bobbie Jo Stinnett to death in Missouri. Stinnett was eight months pregnant, and Montgomery cut the baby out of her and kidnapped it. She had been telling family and friends she was pregnant, and tried to pass the baby — who survived — off as her own.
Montgomery’s attorneys have been fighting for clemency for the 52-year-old woman, arguing that her mental illnesses, caused by a life of abuse and sexual assault, led her to have a psychotic breakdown and commit the crime that sent her to death row. Clemency is not the same as a pardon, but rather reduces a defendant’s sentence.
The fight for Montgomery’s clemency has been complicated by the pandemic. Medical experts have not been able to visit the prison to assess her, and in November, her attorneys contracted COVID-19 after meeting with her at Carswell. Her legal team has filed several lawsuits asking for a stay in Montgomery’s execution due to the extreme circumstances. Any of those courts could decide to save Montgomery’s life. President Donald Trump also has the power to grant Montgomery a temporary reprieve or clemency.
On Wednesday, the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol also impacted Montgomery’s case. Her attorneys were presenting their clemency petition — along with 5,000 pages of evidence — to the Clemency Committee when armed rioters stormed the Capitol. Under any circumstances, clemency for someone on death row is a difficult decision, and the insurrection on Wednesday drew focus and attention away from Montgomery’s case, Babcock said.
“Making these life or death decisions is one of the hardest things you do as a leader,” Babcock said. “It’s hard in the best of times. These are not the best of times.”
Campaigns for Montgomery
On Monday, Montgomery’s legal team and activists are planning a social media campaign from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Babcock encouraged people to join the campaign and post on Twitter and Instagram about Montgomery’s case. On SaveLisa.org, the team offers a social media toolkit that includes a song about Montgomery, background information on the case and sample tweets.
In a video, actress Scarlett Johansson partnered with the ACLU to ask Trump to stop Montgomery’s execution.
“By doing so, he can join the growing chorus of people calling to end the stigmatization of mental illness,” Johansson said in the video. “He can send a message to the thousands of people who have been the victims of childhood rape and trafficking that their pain matters. That they matter. And they are more than their trauma.”
Montgomery’s sister, Diane Mattingly, spoke to the Kansas City Star about the abuse and torture she and her sister experienced as children. Mattingly was removed from her family’s home and placed into a loving foster home, but Montgomery was left behind.
“I mean, look at all the people that could have intervened,” Mattingly told the Star. “Her teachers, the police officer that she went to. She told him straight out, I’m being gang-raped. He dropped her off at her mother’s house and drove away and never did nothing about it. All these people have failed her over and over and over again.”
And now, Montgomery’s attorneys say, the government is failing her, too.
“The government will be fighting to execute her,” Babcock said. “We will be fighting harder to keep her alive.”
A petition asking Trump to stop Montgomery’s execution has been signed by nearly 250,000 people.
History of abuse
Even before she was born, Montgomery suffered brain damage due to her mother’s drinking during pregnancy, Montgomery’s attorneys said in the petition. As a young teenager, she was sexually assaulted repeatedly by her stepfather, who slammed her head into the concrete floor while raping her.
The torture she experienced resulted in her becoming detached from reality. Scientific imaging shows that her brain is damaged structurally and functionally.
She has also been diagnosed with epilepsy, bipolar disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
Montgomery’s mother allowed adult men to rape the girl in exchange for money or home repairs, according to court documents. Many adults, including a cousin who was a law enforcement officer and the judge in her mother’s divorce proceedings, knew what was happening to Montgomery and did nothing to intervene.
Various humanitarian groups have called on the government to help Montgomery. A coalition of more than 1,000 supporters that include prosecutors, anti-sex trafficking and anti domestic violence groups, child advocates and mental health groups, have urged President Donald Trump to stop her execution.
Montgomery would be the first woman executed by the federal government in the United States in 67 years.
This story was originally published January 10, 2021 at 5:52 PM.
