Lisa Montgomery then and now. Photo: courtesy of Democracy Now!
We look at one of the most shocking cases in the slew of federal executions the Trump administration has scheduled in its final months: Lisa Montgomery, who was convicted in 2007 for a gruesome murder of a pregnant woman, is set be the first woman to be executed by the federal government in 70 years if her January 12 execution goes forward.
Advocates say Montgomery suffers from mental illnesses caused by a life of abuse and sexual assault, and that she deserves clemency. “She is profoundly mentally ill,” Cornell law professor Sandra Babcock says. “Why the rush to execute someone like Lisa Montgomery among all of these other people? That for me illustrates the brutality that we’re witnessing right now.”
Trump Prepares to Execute Five Prisoners in Closing Days of Presidency
We look at the unprecedented five federal executions President Trump’s Department of Justice has scheduled before Inauguration Day, starting with Brandon Bernard on International Human Rights Day, and ending with Dustin Higgs on January 15, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
Four of the people set to die are Black men, and the other is Lisa Montgomery, a severely mentally ill white woman who faced a lifetime of sexual abuse and would be the first woman executed in nearly 70 years.
“When you give absolute power over life and death to government officials, they can really do what they want,” responds Sister Helen Prejean, one of the world’s most well-known anti-death-penalty activists.
She also discusses the life and legacy of Bill Pelke, who co-founded the group Journey of Hope and partnered with Prejean to campaign against the death penalty and spare the life of the woman who was 15 years old when she killed his grandmother.
