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Bobbie Jo Stinnett (December 4, 1981 – December 16, 2004) was a pregnant 23-year-old American woman found murdered in her home in Skidmore, Missouri. The perpetrator, Lisa Marie Montgomery, then aged 36, strangled Stinnett from behind and cut Stinnett's unborn child, eight months into gestation, from her womb. The child was safely recovered by authorities and returned to the father.

Montgomery was tried and found guilty in 2007. She was executed by lethal injection on January 13, 2021, shortly after midnight, after exhausting the appeals process. Montgomery was the first female federal inmate in 67 years to be executed by the United States federal government, and the fourth overall.According to Lisa's defence lawyer this was the last bloodlust of failed adminstration.

Background

Bobbie Jo Stinnett was eight months pregnant with her only child. She and her husband ran a dog-breeding business from their residence. Stinnett and Montgomery met through dog show events and had ongoing interaction in a Rat Terrier chatroom called "Ratter Chatter".

It is known that Stinnett was expecting the arrival in Skidmore, Missouri, of prospective buyers for a terrier at about the time of her murder. Montgomery told Stinnett that she, too, was pregnant, leading to the two women chatting online and exchanging e-mails about their pregnancies.

Murder and investigation

On December 16, 2004, Montgomery entered the house, strangled Stinnett, and cut the premature infant from her mother's womb. There was no sign of forced entry; authorities believe that Montgomery, posing as customer "Darlene Fischer", arranged to visit Stinnett's house on that day.

Stinnett was discovered by her mother, Becky Harper, in a pool of blood about an hour after the murder. Harper immediately called 9-1-1. Harper described the wounds inflicted upon her daughter as appearing as if her "stomach had exploded". Attempts by paramedics to revive Stinnett were unsuccessful, and she was pronounced dead at St. Francis Hospital in Maryville.

The next day, December 17, 2004, Montgomery was arrested at her farmhouse in Melvern, Kansas, where the newborn had been claimed as her own and was recovered. The day-old baby was placed in the custody of her father. The quick recovery and capture was attributed to, in part, the use of forensic computer investigation, which tracked Montgomery and Stinnett's online communication with one another. Both bred rat terriers and may have attended dog shows together.

The later investigation was also aided by the issuance of an AMBER alert to enlist the public's help. The alert was initially denied because it had never been used in an unborn case and thus there was no description of the victim. Eventually, after intervention by Congressman Sam Graves it was implemented. When authorities went to speak to Montgomery they found her in the living room holding the baby and watching television with the CIA alert flashing on the screen. DNA testing was used to confirm the infant's identity.

Perpetrator

Lisa Montgomery
Born	Lisa Marie Montgomery (1968-02-27)February 27, 1968 Melvern, Kansas, U.S.
Died	January 13, 2021(2021-01-13) (aged 52) USP Terre Haute, Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.
Cause of death	Execution by lethal injection
Criminal status	Executed
Spouse	Kevin Montgomery
Criminal charge	Kidnapping resulting in death
Penalty	Death sentence
Details
Date	December 16, 2004
Country	United States
State(s)	Missouri
Date apprehended	December 17, 2004

Lisa Marie Montgomery (February 27, 1968 – January 13, 2021) resided in Melvern, Kansas, at the time of the murder. She was raised in an abusive home where she was allegedly raped by her stepfather for many years. She sought escape mentally by drinking alcohol. When Montgomery was 14, her mother discovered the abuse, but reacted by threatening her daughter with a gun. Montgomery tried to escape this situation by marrying at the age of 18, but both the first marriage and a second marriage resulted in further abuse.

Montgomery had four children before she underwent a tubal ligation in 1990. She falsely claimed to be pregnant several times after the procedure, according to both her first and second spouses.

At the time of her arrest, it was speculated that Montgomery's motivation stemmed from a miscarriage she may have suffered and subsequently concealed from her family. Montgomery's former husband later told authorities that she underwent a tubal ligation in 1990, and that she had a history of falsely telling acquaintances that she was pregnant. This led to later speculation for Montgomery's motive, which was that her former husband planned to reveal she was lying about being pregnant in an effort to get custody of their children and that Montgomery needed to produce a baby in order to counter the charge of habitual lying about pregnancy.

Trial and ruling

Montgomery was charged with the federal offense of "kidnapping resulting in death", a crime established by the Federal Kidnapping Act of 1932, and described in Title 18 of the United States Code. If convicted, she faced a sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty.

At a pre-trial hearing, a neuropsychologist testified that head injuries, which Montgomery had sustained some years before, could have damaged the part of the brain that controls aggression. During her trial in federal court, her defense attorneys, led by Frederick Duchardt, asserted that she had pseudocyesis, a mental condition that causes a woman to falsely believe she is pregnant and exhibit outward signs of pregnancy. According to The Guardian, Duchardt attempted to follow this line of defense only one week before the trial began, after being forced to abandon a contradictory argument that Stinnett was murdered by Montgomery's brother Tommy, who had an alibi. As a result, Montgomery's family refused to co-operate with Duchardt and describe her background to the jury.

Dr. V. S. Ramachandran and MD William Logan gave expert testimony that Montgomery had pseudocyesis in addition to depression, borderline personality disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Ramachandran testified that Montgomery's stories about her actions fluctuated because her delusional state fluctuated, and that she was unable to appreciate the nature and quality of her acts. Both federal prosecutor Roseann Ketchmark and the opposing expert witness forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz disagreed strongly with the diagnosis of pseudocyesis.

On October 22, 2007, jurors found Montgomery guilty, rejecting the defense claim Montgomery was delusional. On October 26, the jury recommended a death sentence. Judge Gary A. Fenner formally sentenced Montgomery to death. On April 4, 2008, a judge upheld the jury's recommendation for death.

Duchardt's aforementioned pseudocyesis defense, Montgomery's past trauma and separate diagnoses of mental illness were not fully revealed to the jury until after her conviction, by her appeals team. This led critics, including Guardian journalist David Rose, to argue that Duchardt provided an incompetent legal defense for Montgomery. Fenner required Duchardt to be cross-examined in November 2016. Duchardt rejected all criticism and defended his conduct.

Subsequent legal proceedings

On March 19, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Montgomery's certiorari petition. Montgomery, who was registered for the Federal Bureau of Prisons under number 11072-031, was as of 2017 incarcerated at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, where she would remain until she would be transferred to the site of her execution. For a long time, she had been the only woman with a federal death sentence.

Experts who examined Montgomery after conviction concluded that by the time of her crime she had long been living with psychosis, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorders. She was said to be often disassociated from reality and to have permanent brain damage from numerous beatings at the hands of her parents and spouses.

Montgomery's scheduled execution on December 8, 2020, by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, was delayed following her attorneys' contracting COVID-19. On December 23, 2020, Montgomery was given a new execution date of January 12, 2021. U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss found that "the director's order setting a new execution date while the Court's stay was in effect was 'not in accordance with law,'" prohibiting Montgomery's execution to be rescheduled until January 1, 2021, at the earliest.

On January 1, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated Moss's ruling, effectively reinstating Montgomery's execution date of January 12. On that date, federal judge Patrick Hanlon granted a stay of her execution on the grounds that her mental competence must first be tested as it could be argued she did not understand the grounds for her execution, per the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The stay was then vacated by the Supreme Court via a 6-3 vote. The execution was ordered to be carried out right after this. She arrived in Terre Haute's death row on January 12.

Execution

Montgomery was executed by lethal injection on January 13, 2021, at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, after a stay of execution was lifted by the Supreme Court of the United States. She was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. (EST). Montgomery declined to offer any last words.

Montgomery was the first female federal prisoner executed in 67 years, as well as the first woman executed in the United States since Kelly Gissendaner in 2015, and also the first person executed in the United States in 2021. Only three other women have been executed by the U.S. federal government: in 1865, Mary Surratt, by hanging; in 1953, Ethel Rosenberg, by electric chair; and—also in 1953—Bonnie Heady by gas chamber. Previously, the last woman executed by the federal government was Bonnie Brown Heady on Dec. 18, 1953, for the kidnapping and murder of a 6-year-old boy in Missouri.

In popular culture

The case was described in the books Baby Be Mine, by author Diane Fanning, and Murder in the Heartland by M. William Phelps. The case was also featured in an episode of the true crime series Deadly Women titled "Fatal Obsession", and in the fifth episode of the documentary series No One Saw a Thing that aired on the Sundance Channel on August 29, 2019.

See also

• Capital punishment by the United States federal government
• Disappearance of Branson Perry, Stinnett's cousin, in 2001
• Dustin Higgs
• Fetal abduction
• Internet homicide
• List of offenders executed in the United States in 2021
• List of people executed by the United States federal government
• List of women executed in the United States since 1976

References

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2. ^ Hollingsworth, Heather (December 22, 2004). "Husband thought stolen baby was his". The Guardian.
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4. ^ Michale Balsamo (October 18, 2020). "Feds to execute a woman for the first time in more than six decades". USA Today. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
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7. "Law Center: Couple allegedly showed off kidnapped baby; Dad united with daughter". CNN. December 20, 2004. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved April 27, 2009. The Internet chat room "Ratter Chatter," a haven for rat terrier lovers in cyberspace, was overwhelmed with responses from its users...
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34. ^ The Associated Press (December 25, 2020). "Judge delays execution of only woman on U.S. death row". NBC News. Retrieved December 26, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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External links

• United States of America vs. Lisa M. Montgomery
• U.S. v. Lisa Montgomery – F.B.I. Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint
• USA v. Lisa Montgomery Department of Justice Information
• Picture of Stinnett from www.uniontribune.net

40°17′19″N 95°05′06″W / 40.28874°N 95.08487°W / 40.28874; -95.08487

• Violence against women in the United States
• Nodaway County, Missouri
• 2004 murders in the United States
• 2004 in Missouri
• December 2004 events in the United States
• Murder in Missouri
• Kidnapping in the United States
• 2004 in Kansas
• Kidnapping in the 2000s