Lisa Montgomery: The First Woman To Be Executed in 70 Years

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Lisa Montgomery, she is on the list of those to be executed in January before the inauguration, and the first woman in 70 years to be executed in a federal manner. And I want to ask you about this, because, again, it goes to the nature of the crime, which is absolutely horrific, but also the nature of her particular situation. She was convicted in 2007 of fatally strangling a 23- year-old pregnant woman and essentially cutting her open. And it’s a horrible story. But her lawyers are seeking clemency due to her history of severe mental illness. And she was a victim of gang rape and, I mean, the most terrible abuse. I mean, talk to me about that, because people will say, wow, look at this crime, she deserved to die. But then there are these other potentially mitigating factors.

SISTER HELEN PREJEAN, ANTI-DEATH PENALTY CAMPAIGNER: Absolutely. And when you have a good lawyer and a mitigation expert with you at trial, she actually had a prosecutor just — all that torture and suffering she went through from the time she was a small child, just says, oh, it’s the abuse excuse. And so she goes mentally out — she gets — she loses touch with reality. That is one of the — Katherine Porter (sic), who examined her, just said, when you are going through terror as a child, you disconnect, you go to another place of reality. And the fact is that, if Lisa Montgomery weren’t given the anti- psychotropic drugs to keep her in touch with reality, the Supreme Court has said that people who are mentally — who are disconnected and don’t even realize they will be executed cannot be — cannot be executed. So, they’re keeping her sane enough to be able to kill her, and this on top of all the torture, where she got no help. Her sister was moved to a foster care home, but she wasn’t. And now the government wants to kill her. It’s so outrageous. It’s — it just shows what’s wrong in this. They look at the crime. Clearly, that is a mentally disturbed person that cuts a baby out of a woman, brings it home, tells her husband, oh, I gave birth to the baby while I was shopping, and so now we have a baby. And, of course, the police are at her door the next day. These are mitigating circumstances. Is this what you mean by the worst of the worst? She’s innocent of death. She should not be put to death. She should be helped. And she’s one example. And it just slays you to just know all the people who have been executed and who never — the juries never got to hear the story of what is — especially abused and battered women, that whole syndrome they go into, following what their husband says and so forth.