US executes first female inmate in 7 decades

Lisa Montgomery. Pic/AFP

A Kansas woman was executed on Wednesday for strangling an expectant mother in Missouri and cutting the baby from her womb, the first time in nearly seven decades that the US government has put to death a female inmate. Lisa Montgomery, 52, was pronounced dead at 1.31 am after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.

11th to be executed
She was the 11th prisoner to receive a lethal injection there since July when President Donald Trump, an ardent supporter of capital punishment, resumed federal executions following 17 years without one. As the execution process began, a woman standing over Montgomery's shoulder leaned over, and asked her if she had any last words. "No," Montgomery responded in a muffled voice.

‘Bloodlust of failed admin'
"The craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight," Montgomery's attorney, Kelley Henry said. "The government stopped at nothing in its zeal to kill this damaged and delusional woman."

Montgomery killed 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore in 2004. She used a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then cut the baby girl from the womb with a kitchen knife. Montgomery took the child with her and attempted to pass the girl off as her own.