Jury Urges Death Penalty in Fetus Theft By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH,AP Posted: 2007-10-26 17:32:16 Filed Under: Crime News KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Oct. 26) - A jury on Friday decided that a woman convicted of killing an expectant mother and cutting her baby from her womb should receive the death penalty. Jurors deliberated for more than five hours before recommending the sentence for Lisa Montgomery. Prosecutors say a judge will sentence Montgomery, but is obligated to abide by the jury's recommendation. Montgomery, 39, was convicted Monday of kidnapping and killing Bobbie Jo Stinnett on Dec. 16, 2004, in the victim's home in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore. She was arrested the next day in Melvern, Kan., where she was showing off the newborn as her own. Montgomery wiped her eyes with a tissue as the jury announced its sentencing decision. Her attorney, Fred Duchardt, had his hand on her shoulder. Lisa Montgomery's husband, Kevin, and his parents were not in the courtroom when the verdict was read but came in as the jurors left. The family then went into another room without speaking to reporters. Prosecutors argued that Stinnett's killing and mutilation is the kind of crime for which capital punishment is intended. Showing jurors photos of the bloody crime scene, the prosecution told jurors Thursday that Montgomery deserves to die because of the heinousness of her crime, and because computer evidence - including Internet searches on performing Caesareans - shows the crime was premeditated. Federal prosecutor Roseann Ketchmark said Montgomery had violated Stinnett in the "most wicked way possible," then failed to seek medical attention for the infant, who was four weeks shy of her due date. Defense attorney Fred Duchardt, who claims sexual abuse during Montgomery's childhood led to mental illness, asked the jury to spare his client's life. He said emotional abuse from her mother and sexual abuse from her stepfather "killed Lisa's soul." "I'm not ashamed to ask you all for mercy," Duchardt told the jury. "I ask for it on behalf of Lisa and all the people who love her." Prosecutors claimed Montgomery was faking mental illness to aid her defense. They also noted that few of the many people who have been sexually abused go on to kill. Ketchmark showed jurors crime scene photos highlighting the blows to Stinnett's head, injuries to her elbows, defensive cuts to her hands and strangulation marks. "Look at the ragged abdominal cuts," she said. "This is vicious. This defendant mutilated her." Ketchmark also described how the gruesome death had hurt Stinnett's family, particularly her husband, Zeb, who was forced to raise their daughter alone, and her mother, Becky Harper, who found her daughter's body. She deserves it for doing something like this,but she got messed up when she was a kid. Still sick crime, gotta take the punishment.
I want to vomit. Can't believe that something like this actually happens, and can't believe the reason. I feel sorry for her, if this is a result of her past abuse. Why on earth would you ask to spare her life? If she has any emotion left, she would have to live with this until she dies...
sounds crazy to me.. but i really wonder where does the jury draw a line for appeal of mental illness..
On one hand, she took away the life of a fetus, who had a healthy life ahead of her along with her mum, who also was killed--That's 2 lives But on the other hand... She was tortured and abused when she was a kid.. It doesn't really seem to work out. It be a difficult decision for the Jury
Ah, I read about this in the newspaper. In my newspaper, they added that Montgomery pretended she was pregnant. She tried to pass off the baby as her own. I think the baby is still alive? This is just tragic. I can't believe someone is capable of cutting up a pregnant woman.
I think she deserves the death sentence. She knew exactly what she was doing. I have no sympathy for her at all.
I agree with the prosecutors that not every sexually abused victim goes to murder a totally innocent person to steal a baby.
