Shaughnessy also beat the girls with brooms and belts,Mattingly said. "God, no, please," she said. He stressed that the juryheard testimony about her mental illness and her history of being abused, yet still unanimously recommended her execution. When Mattingly and Montgomery were young, Shaughnessy beat them and doled out cruel forms of punishment, like taping Montgomery's mouth shut, or pushing Mattingly out into the snow, naked. "There was a lot of talk both ways on it," he said when contacted by phone at his new home in Texas. In Montgomerys early teen years, Kleiner moved the family to an isolated trailer at the end of a dead-end road outside of Sperry, Oklahoma, a severely impoverished area north of Tulsa. In recommending execution, the jury spelled out six aggravating factors supporting capital punishment. She has been let down over and over and over again by people in authority, people who were supposed to be caretakers for her, Mattingly said. I didn't know what to do or how to talk to my sister about it.". Recibi una inyeccin letal en una prisin de Terre Haute,. She lived at 61 addresses in the 36 years before she went to prison, court documents show. Montgomery clearly should spend the rest of her life in prison, but she is not among the "worst of the worst" for whom the death penalty is intended, Mattingly told The Topeka Capital-Journal. Kleiner and Shaughnessy divorced in 1985, with Shaughnessy contending she once walked in on Kleiner and Montgomery having sex. When Mattingly attendedMontgomery's sentencing hearing in 2007, which was the first time she had seen her sister in about 35 years, she said Montgomery's face bore the same look of fear it had when they were separated. According to sworn statements from her family, her mental health declined rapidly after that. More: Why the fate of the only woman on federal death row hinges on these Tennessee attorneys and their health, "Lisas trauma was so severe that it compromised her neurological functioning and development," they said in a written statement. That was ultimately dropped in favour of an insanity defence, but Henry believes the damage to Montgomery's credibility was already done. The Trump administration announced it was reinstating executions last summer after an almost 20-year hiatus. Lisa Montgomery's current legal team has conducted some 450 interviews with family members, friends, case workers, doctors and social workers. Lisa Montgomery, a Kansas native scheduled within days to becomethe first woman executed by the federal government in 67 years, lived a childhood so abusive her attorneys call it akin to torture. The father was a teacher. Even at the age of 8, Mattingly recalled being worried about what would happen to Montgomery without her there. Meanwhile, her mother in 1985 had married Richard Boman, whose son Montgomery's stepbrother, Carl Boman got Montgomery pregnant. "She needs to be put to death.". When she called her attorneys that day, she could hardly speak. After their biological father left the home, Mattingly says they were left alone with Shaughnessy's boyfriends, at least one of whom started raping Mattingly. DNA testing later showed they were Stinnett's. "Being loved unconditionally helped me heal, find a caring husband and raise two children who have hearts of gold," Mattingly wrote. "Bobbie deserves to be here today. Bobbie Jo's mother and husband have have not spoken publicly in many years. Stinnett's husband was at work, andStinnett was on the phone with her mother, Becky Harper, when Montgomery's dirty red Toyota pulled upon the afternoon of Dec. 16. Dorr has since been released from prison and remarried. The mom, Judy Shaughnessy, was so cruel she once beat the family dog to death in front of her kids, the petition states. "I don't think people understand how bad this was," Strong said. Read about our approach to external linking. Judy ultimately married six times, and had multiple partners throughout Lisa's childhood. The family treated Mattingly as one of their own, and gave her a sense of belonging and self-worth, she said. Stinnett lived with her husband, Zeb, in Skidmore, Mo., a town near the state's northwest corner with fewerthan 300 people today. Montgomery suffered from pseudocyesis, the false belief she was pregnant, jurors heard from Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, director of the Center of Brain and Cognition at the University of California in San Diego. "But one of the things that the president can do is say - to women who have been trafficked, and who have been sexually abused - 'Your abuse matters'.". As one family story goes, Montgomerys first words as a toddler were, dont spank me.. "Let's say I didn't stay clean very long," she says. Montgomery's second husband Kevin Montgomery, who lives near Melvern and remains married to her voiced support for her bid for clemency in a statement releasedthrough his wife's attorneys. After Mattingly was removed from the home by social services, Montgomery fell prey to her mother's new husband, who according to statements from his other children, was a violent alcoholic who began sexually abusing Montgomery when she was a pre-teen. Mattingly was 8 years old and Montgomery was 4 when Mattingly was removed in 1972 from Shaughnessy's mobile home at Ogden, a community of about 1,960 people in Riley County. In the haze of her mental illness, she went to the home of a pregnant woman, killed her, and removed the baby. But the cousin, a sheriff's deputy, confessed to Montgomery's current legal team that he did nothing. And then at the end, she was broken.". The tiny farming town of Skidmore sits in the far northwest corner of Missouri. Though capital case defendants tend to be confused and stunned, those emotions were heightened with Montgomery, who had trouble responding to questions, Wurtz said. President Donald Trump can "break the chain of evil" experienced by Montgomery and other members of her family by granting clemency and commuting her sentence to life imprisonment, Mattingly said. As long as she was given cigarettes, Montgomery continued to talk, Strong said. Only 18 death sentences were handed down in 2020 and the number of executions carried out hit a 30-year low. Patterson made a mistake by abandoning them to "that crazy lady," he said at Montgomery's sentencing hearing in 2007. "She got joy out of it.". Judy Shaughnessy, drank during pregnancy. Eventually, Montgomery admitted she had acted alone in killing Stinnett and taking her baby. . "One sister got taken out and got put into a loving home and was nurtured and had time to heal," says Mattingly. Montgomery was left behind with her mother. Two days before the crime, her former husband (and stepbrother) sought custody of two of her children. Her children were disturbed by it. Lisa Montgomery tried to get counseling the year before she killed Stinnettbut wasn'tconnected to a quality provider, her attorneys said. Diane Mattingly is the sister of Lisa Montgomery, who is scheduled for execution by the federal government on December 8, 2020. And, in fact, blaming her for it.. Weddle said she moved to Melvern when she retired nine years ago because she wanted peace and quiet after more than 30 years as a Topeka police officer. According to an interview with her father, Montgomery's mother Judy Shaughnessy drank heavily throughout her pregnancy, and their daughter was born with foetal alcohol syndrome. "The other sister stayed in that situation, and it got worse and worse and worse. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. The family moved from place to place dozens of times, but it was in a trailer in Sperry, Oklahoma, where her lawyers say the abuse turned into something more akin to torture. He was in her. - Sandra Babcock, faculty director of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Montgomery, who confessed, was later sentenced to death for the , The Trump administration announced it was. It is the only federal prison with an active death chamber. Victims of severe childhood sexual abuse can overcome their trauma with certain factors, Porterfield said, such as the presence of a nurturing adult who provides love and connects them to resources to promote healing. Ms. Montgomery has bipolar disorder, temporal lobe epilepsy, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorder, psychosis, traumatic brain injury and most likely fetal alcohol syndrome. Her mother, Judy Shaughnessy, beat and tormented all of her children, proudly telling an investigator that her daughter's first sentence was "Don't spank me, it hurts." Montgomery's first stepfather . Lisa Montgomery and Bobbie Jo Stinnett got to know each other online through a shared love of dogs. Her daughter remembered her acting like a young child in public, twirling and skipping with her arms swinging with abandon. He was pumping her, Shaughnessy testified. Montgomery, 39, is accused of killing Bobbie Joe Stinnett, 23, and cutting the baby from her womb on Dec. 16, 2004, at Stinnett's home in Skidmore. For example, she said, the jury that recommended Montgomery be executed wasn't asked to consider the impact that would have on her four children and 12 grandchildren. In the cases where women are sentenced to death, prosecutors often use gender stereotypes against the defendants, she said, characterizing them as transgressive or not normal in some way. She lapsed increasingly into mental illness and repeatedly faked pregnancy. Mattingly has enjoyed a "blessed life," she said. ", "I live with regret for not speaking up about what happened to Lisa," Kidwell said, adding that he just didnt know what to do.. In a letterin late November written with a black crayon, Montgomery told Dorr that other inmates at Carswell took it "really hard" when her execution date was set. The baby, who was uninjured, was returned to her father. They have been joined by a chorus of supportive voices from the legal field, including 41 former and current prosecutors, as well as human rights entities like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. "Come on, baby. Those were disconnections that were tragic in their consequences. Babcock noted that while at least a dozen other women across the U.S. have committed a similar crime in the past 20 years killing a pregnant woman to kidnap her baby Montgomery was the only one sentenced to death. Harper told a dispatcher her daughter's womb appeared to have "exploded" and that blood was "everywhere." Montgomery's lawyers want her sentence commuted to a life sentence, which would allow her to remain under psychiatric care in prison for the rest of her days. If you were to meet her, it would be inconceivable to you that she committed this crime, Harwell said. As her attorneys fight for her life, Montgomery has at times seemed out of touch with reality,Henry said:Hermental illness causesher to disconnectwhen life becomes too terrible to endure. When Montgomery was 15, Shaughnessy and Kleiner separated. Montgomery first claimed to have had the baby at a Topeka birthing center but began changing her story after investigatorsseparated her from her husband and the infant, Strong said. They hold a collection and try to do something nice for Stinnett's mother. There were always different men around the house. She enacted this in the grip of a very broken mind.". Montgomery gave birth to three daughters and a son from1987 to1990, court records say. Teddy Kleiner, the son of Shaughnessy and Jack Kleiner, was 45 years old when he was fatally shot in 2019 in North Topeka. She credits this moment for her "fairly normal" life - a house on eight peaceful acres, a loving relationship with her children, nearly two decades at a job working for the state of Kentucky. By multiple accounts, Kleiner was an erratic, violent man who beat the kids and his wife regularly. All the while, Lisa's mother was being paid to let strange men rape Lisa. Stinnett bled to death. Montgomery often read her Bible or did things with her hands, including writing, quilting, and making placemats and bookmarks, Dorr said. In fact, he drove her back home and dropped her off in the hands of her abusers. Montgomery contacted Stinnett, 23, after meeting her at a dog show earlier that year at Abilene, in north-central Kansas, where they posed with others in a photo. A generation ago, it was the kind of place where you could "get your hair cut, see a show, buy rabbit feed and eat dinner" - but those days are long gone. "She was completely detached from reality.". Strong said he and Fritz questioned Montgomery using a"good cop/bad cop" approach. Mattingly said Patterson was often away, and Shaughnessy became increasingly abusive toward them, at times forcing Mattingly to eat raw onions as punishment and go outdoors into the cold naked. Montgomery and Carl Boman divorced, remarried and divorced again in 1998. The population hovers around just 250, and everyone knew Bobbie Jo Stinnett and her family. Montgomery lamented that she couldn't be present to console them because she was in solitary confinement, said Dorr, Montgomery's friend since they met in a federal prison in 2006. Jack also raped Lisa for years. Several high-profile figures had appealed for clemency in Brandon's case but Mr Trump did not heed those calls. For the rest of her life.. She went home with a newborn, one she acquired by murdering the babys pregnant mother. Judy Shaughnessy and her boyfriend physical, psychological and sexual abuse Lisa. As the car drove further and further away, Mattingly began to vomit. Lisa's mother, Judy Shaughnessy, abused her "in extreme and sadistic ways," according to interviews with nearly 450 family members, neighbors, lawyers, social workers, and teachers. Since they began, the federal government has executed seven people. People confuse punishment with culpability, she went on. Montgomery suffers from severe mental illness. At least five times after she was sterilized, she told people that she was pregnant. A survivor of incest and sex trafficking, she is diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychotic features, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, temporal lobe epilepsy, and cerebellar dysfunction, said Amy Harwell, a federal public defender in Tennessee who is working on Montgomerys case. The historic reports of her at the time are consistent with the idea that she was a completely impaired mentally ill nonfunctional person who was operating within the symptoms of her mental illness, Porterfield said. Montgomery described feeling that she was unsure whether her environment was real, and confided that she used a strategy to ground herself in reality: She would look at a tree out the window and tell herself that the tree was real if she could see it. She was often spaced out, appearing disconnected from reality. He had a daughter from a previous relationship, Diane, who was four years older than Montgomery. There is a decision that has to be made, separate from guilt, about whether someones behavior is so morally reprehensible that they deserve the death penalty, she said. She had four children in less than four years before being sterilized. "There was so much pressure on her at that point," says Henry. As a teenager, Montgomery confided in a cousin, telling him the men would tie her up, beat her and even urinate on her afterwards. A social worker found Lisa's allegations of abuse credible and turned the file. Henry said there is no question that Montgomery has severe mental illness, noting that federal authorities have administered her antipsychotic medications since her arrest in 2004. She began prostituting Lisa to older men when Lisa was in her early teens. In the other cases, she said, prosecutors opted not to seek the death penalty or juries did not impose it because it was obvious the women were suffering from profound mental illnesses. Montgomery told investigators she was surprised at how nicely they had treated her, considering what she had done. However, the executions ordered by President Trump are continuing. My heart goes out to the family of Bobbie Jo Stinnett and the loss that they have felt and are still feeling. Since receiving her execution date, she's been placed on suicide watch in an isolated cell. Montgomery smelled like a sour ashtray and body sweat" as Don Fritz and Randy Strong interrogated her on Dec. 17, 2004, Strong recalled. Another case with Missouri ties. She was sick. Montgomery wasn't allowed eyeglasses, though she is far-sighted and near-sighted, or a CPAP machine, which has been prescribed since 2015 for her sleep apnea, Henry said. She believes that if Montgomery had been rescued too, and given what she was given contact with loving, protective adults everything would have been different. "I felt sick watching the video. But it was not a pet that she was to retrieve that day. Dorr met Montgomery after being imprisoned for helping an inmate escape in 2006 as Dorrran a dog training program for inmates at Lansing Correctional Facility in northeast Kansas. But it is something that she carries with her and that she mourns not only for the effect on her life and that of her family, but for the terrible effect on Mrs. Stinnett, who was killed, and also her family who was left behind.. The couple had three children in rapid succession. Her terror was well-founded, said Montgomery's attorneys, Kelley Henry and Amy Harwell. Lisa told me that when these men raped her, she would go away in her mind and try not to be present, the brother said in a court declaration. Stinnett wasn't breathing and was cold. They recommended a sentence of death. I cant understand why they have to kill this woman, knowing her background and everything that happened, he said. Only around 2% of inmates on death row are women. When Stinnett answered the door, Montgomery overpowered the pregnant woman, strangled her with a piece of rope, and cut the baby out of her womb. She is the only woman on federal death row. On December 8, the federal government plans to execute her for a crime she committed in the grip of severe mental illness after a lifetime of living hell. To help keep her mind occupied, Henry said, Montgomery was initially given one crayon and one piece of paper, but nothing else. Montgomerys legal team is fighting against the clock to gather the information needed for her clemency petition, which has been complicated by the coronavirus crisis. 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