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Tomorrow, January 12, the federal government plans to execute Lisa Montgomery, a woman with severe mental illness who suffered relentless physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, including being trafficked by her own mother.
There is still time to stop this from happening.
There is still time to stop this from happening.
"Lisa was born into a family ravaged by poverty, violence, addiction, and mental illness. Her mother Judy drank throughout her pregnancy, causing Lisa to be born with organic brain damage. Her father (who is also severely mentally ill) abandoned the family when Lisa was a child."
"Her mother, Judy, was violent and neglectful. She taped Lisa’s mouth shut with duct tape when she didn’t want to hear Lisa speaking. Lisa recounts how she learned not to cry when the duct tape was on her mouth, because her nose would become stuffed up and she couldn’t breathe."
"On one occasion Judy killed the family dog in front of Lisa and her siblings to punish them, brutally smashing its head with a shovel until it died."
Judy ultimately married six times, and had multiple partners throughout Lisa’s childhood. When Lisa was 11-years-old, Judy's then-husband Jack began raping her. "Judy blamed Lisa for Jack’s sexual abuse. She was also prostituting Lisa to her male friends."
When Lisa was around 15-years-old, Judy started to invite men to the house to have sex with Lisa in exchange for money and services. These men raped her orally, vaginally, and anally, “one after the other.”
"Her mother told her she had to 'pay' for her room and the new indoor plumbing (they lived in a trailer, which had had no indoor plumbing) by submitting to the sexual torture of gang rape.
"After the rapes began, her friends and family members reported that Lisa began to “space out” frequently. Her grades declined, and she was placed in special needs classes. School administrators suspected abuse, but failed to take steps to investigate or report it to the police."
"During Judy’s divorce from Jack, Lisa testified about his rapes. The judge presiding over the case scolded Judy for failing to report the abuse to authorities—but failed to report the incident to the police. Lisa was returned home with Judy and the abuse escalated."
Lisa told her cousin, police officer David Kidwell, about the gang rapes that her mother instigated. He did nothing in response.
Lisa developed multiple mental disorders, including bipolar disorder and temporal lobe epilepsy. The sexual torture caused Lisa to dissociate from reality. She developed a dissociative disorder and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
"At her mother’s instigation, Lisa married her stepbrother when she was 18. He continued the cycle of abuse, raping and beating her. He captured his torture of Lisa on video. After discovering the video, Lisa’s brother said it was “out of a horror movie.”
Lisa went on to have her own children, until her mother forced her to undergo sterilization.
Two days before she committed the crime that would cause her to be sentenced to death her former abusive husband (her stepbrother) filed for custody of two of her children.
Two days before she committed the crime that would cause her to be sentenced to death her former abusive husband (her stepbrother) filed for custody of two of her children.
She had told her new husband she was pregnant and her former husband (stepbrother) knew that wasn't true. "The threat of losing her children combined with years of trauma and severe mental illness pushed Lisa past the brink."
"She went to the home of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was twenty-three and eight months pregnant. Lisa killed her, cut the baby girl from her mother’s abdomen, took the baby home, and cared for her as though she was her own."
"The crime that Lisa committed, though rare, is not unprecedented. More than a dozen women have committed similar crimes around the country, and none, besides Lisa, are condemned to die. The crime itself is a reflection of mental illness."
You can learn more about Lisa's case and what steps you can take now to stop her execution here: https://deathpenaltyworldwide.org/project/savelisa/
I am so sorry, I should have put a content warning on this thread.
