The only woman on death row is due to be executed on December 8th. She strangled a pregnant mother and cut the baby from her womb.
Now a group of people, including mental health experts as well as prosecutors, are calling for her execution to be commuted to life imprisonment on the grounds that she had such severe mental illness as to be detached from reality:
Complex this one. The crime is horrendous and obviously the torch and pitchfork mob won't give a fuck what the reasoning is, they just want revenge."Lisa's experiences as a victim of horrific sexual violence, physical abuse, and being trafficked as a child do not excuse her crime," a group of 41 current and former prosecutors wrote in one of the letters, which were provided to Newsweek.
"But her history provides us with an important explanation that would influence any sentencing recommendation we made as prosecutors."
They said Montgomery's history was "not an 'abuse excuse' as the jury was told at her trial," but evidence that is "critically relevant to determining the appropriate punishment of a serious crime."
Stanley Garnett and Harry Zimmerman, two former district attorneys who have prosecuted cases almost identical to Montgomery's, added in another letter: "We know from first-hand experience that these crimes are inevitably the product of serious mental illness."
They added: "Women who commit such crimes also are likely to have been victimized themselves. These are important factors that make death sentences inappropriate."
They are joined by hundreds of organizations that advocate for women, children and people with mental illnesses.
A letter from 800 organizations, survivors and individuals that work to combat violence against women said:
Montgomery had suffered "a lifetime of horrific abuses" and "was consistently failed by people and systems that should have helped her."
The letter says Montgomery was first sexually abused by her stepfather, who repeatedly raped her and allowed friends to gang-rape her. As a teenager she was trafficked to men by her mother.
Montgomery "developed a dissociative disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder" as a result of the repeated rapes she suffered by those men, the letter said.
It adds that although Montgomery told people about the abuse, no one intervened.
A letter from the heads of three groups that advocate for people with serious mental health illnesses said Montgomery was born with brain damage because of her mother's abuse of alcohol while pregnant and also
"inherited a genetic predisposition to serious mental illness from both sides of her family."
It says that on top of that, the "relentless physical, psychological and sexual abuse" Montgomery suffered throughout her childhood "severed her connection to reality."
This letter noted that multiple experts have concluded Montgomery's crime was the product of her mental illness and brain injuries. "Even today, her grip on reality is fragile, maintained only with a complex regimen of psychotropic medications that she never received before being incarcerated," the letter said.
"President Trump, we know the decision whether to commute a death sentence is difficult, but in Lisa Montgomery's case, it is the right one," the letter added.
"Because of her severe mental illness and the direct link between that illness and her crime, a sentence of life without parole is severe, yet just. We ask that you grant her clemency."
But the victim's history of horrendous abuse, allied with a proven genetic disposition to mental illness, must surely put this into the realms of not guilty through reasons of insanity?
Society already has mitigations for taking a life, such as self defence. Is this not at least sufficient grounds to change a plea from first degree murder to manslaughter or something?
Her actions were horrendous and she is a threat to society, but surely studying her and learning from her to prevent future incidents is preferable to a pointless execution?