Let's Hope Biden Brings This Barbarism To An End.

[Canary42]

Mentally ill girl executed.

Denied spiritual adviser while dying.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/lisa-montgomery-final-hours-lawyer-execution-182442353.html

[pixie374]

The justice system has to be accurate too though. You can't suggest that someone had no idea what they were doing- and also that they deserve to die for it.
I'm sure some do deserve that- but they have to be legally sane. To know that what they doing was wrong and to understand it at the time.

[pastafreak]

The argument that she was able to plan it, and able to drive there to do it, is in no way proof of sanity or indicative of being of sound mind.
Yes, her crime was absolutely horrific, but so was her life from the age of 5 or so. No one comes away undamaged from the abuse she suffered.

[fcc]

She was found guilty by a jury,i'm sure they knew all the details about
her past,and still found her guilty,and yes to drive nearly 200 miles,
murder someone,cut the child from the mother and then drive 200
miles back home doesn't sound like someone suffering a mental illness to me.

[pixie374]

// For years, she had been housed at a prison in Texas for women with special mental health needs and treated for bipolar disorder and complex PTSD stemming from her abusive childhood.//

Lucky you aren't a psychiatrist then.

[TrevorThePug]

"to drive nearly 200 miles, murder someone, cut the child from the mother and then drive 200 miles back home doesn't sound like someone suffering a mental illness to me."

Are you saying that sounds like perfectly normal behaviour then? What a weird world in which you reside.

[fcc]

Lucky you're not bobby jo sinnott then.

[pixie374]

Trevor.... are you going with.... either "perfectly normal" or "criminally insane" and no in between? Really?

[fcc]

No it's not normal behaviour, it's the behaviour of a evil woman.

[pixie374]

Apparently the behaviour of a very sick woman.

[jim360]

There is no doubt that Montgomery committed a barbaric crime, and I don't even know if I'd agree that her life history, tragic as it is, provides enough mitigation -- but it doesn't matter either way. Applying the Death Penalty should be morally unacceptable, no matter the circumstances. If the law provides for it, as it does in the US, then the law should and must be changed as soon as possible.

[pixie374]

I don't think it's "mitigation" Jim. She either understood what she was doing, or she didn't. Nobody knows. I just get a bit tired of the suggestion that "mental illness" is a coverall, and that it's an easy way out.

[TrevorThePug]

Absolutely Jim.

[fcc]

^^ ^^
They would have lovved you at the Nuremberg Trials.

[fcc]

^^ ^^
Loved

[Ellipsis]

> She cut a baby out of its mother's womb = 2 lives lost

The baby survived. The article I linked to states "The baby was returned to her father, after being recovered from Montgomery".

That poor child is 16 now, but at least she survived.

[joko]

the very fact that she planned & carried this out indicates she is very definitely mentally ill. who in their right mind would do that?
she was also in state of psychosis and didnt understand what was going on - so to try to imply the MI diagnosis is just bleeding hearts trying to defend her is pretty lazy.
but that doesnt excuse what she did
im not a fan of the death penalty - i think a life in prison is a worse punishment that execution, especially spending it on death row, with the knowledge that that is your future one day - that must be horrifying to contemplate - also there are too many risks of mistake.

[Zacs-Master]

I’d say anyone who commits murder is mentally ill, at least temporarily.

[andy-hughes]

What I find most dreadful in the barbarism that is state-sponsored murder, is the notion that the state is keen to ensure that the prisoner understands why they are being executed.

What on earth difference does that make?

The prisoner is unlikely to say "Yes, I understand, go right on ahead ..." are they? So why does their 'understanding' make any difference whatsoever?

Maybe the state is trying to salve its collective conscience in attempting to obtain complicity from the prisoner, although again, I utterly fail to see why this makes any difference - the state wishes to murder you, and it will, whether you 'understand why' or not.

Some of the answers refer to the gravity of the crime, and there is no escaping that this was a horrific situation - but to use that to justify an execution makes that revenge, and revenge and justice are not the same thing.

[Jackdaw33]

Your definition of it as 'state-sponsored murder' is extremely emotional and factually incorrect. Murder is by definition unlawful, execution is not.

[LadyCG]

Taking a life is taking a life, Jack. No one on earth has the God-given right to take another's life.