As I read the reason why Lisa Montgomery was convicted and sentenced, I stopped dead in my tracks. It was like a gruesome horror movie scene. The sad part is, it happened.
Montgomery choked Bobbie Jo Stinnett to death on Dec. 16, 2004, in Skidmore. Miss. Then she brutally stabbed Stinnett with a kitchen knife and took her four-weeks-premature fetus. The knife was part of more than 100 pieces of physical evidence to link Montgomery to the murder.
The woman was arrested and convicted with a capital offense of kidnapping resulting in death, and the jury is in the middle of deliberation regarding a sentence of either life in prison, or the death sentence.
This is a horrendous act, and I strongly support death sentence. She cut a premature baby girl from a mother’s womb. That is a macabre act that needs to be penalized justly.
Stinnett was 23 years old. That is my age, and thinking about something as gruesome as this event happening to someone my age is sickening. We are young, with dreams as extensive as the sky and imagination as deep as the cores of our being.
The simple act of going to college, paying bills, hanging out at Starbucks to study and looking forward to graduation are typical things on a college student’s agenda. To die at the hands of a stranger at this age would be an enormous shock.
Think about the smile on the young mothers face, the happiness of the expecting couple – and then from out of nowhere people like Montgomery destroy lives.
In her defense, Montgomery’s lawyers plead insanity, their reasoning being that Lisa had a traumatic childhood and was sexually abused. Psychologically, they have specified that Montgomery was suffering from a mental disorder by the name of pseudocyesis – women falsely believing they are pregnant.
There are stories of Montgomery insisting several times during her relationships with both of her husbands that she was pregnant, which is impossible considering she had a hysterectomy.
With diseases such as these, if a person is adamant about their situation, and truly believes their fabricated stories, then the majority of the times they will go to great lengths to make their lies believeable to the public around them. It is a case of self-satisfaction.
Some feminists may disagree with my stance on this topic, supporting the woman’s act because they sympathize with her mental state and understand the importance of bearing children to women.
I absolutely disagree with the fact that she should be let off easy. This woman had four children with her ex husband. She could have focused her energy on her children, instead of faking pregnancies and then slaying a young mother to obtain her baby.
If one looks at this case and puts themselves, or their sister or a friend in the dead mother’s place, then one will surely feel as strongly as I do about the case.
If this woman was really mentally disoriented and thus committed this atrocity, then I would surely have sympathy for her.
But her insanity plea was rejected, and the justice system does look at these matters seriously, which means they were convinced such a state did not exist for this woman.
Vilayanur Ramachandran, director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, gave his opinion on the subject during the case in court.
He stated that Montgomery, if mentally sick, claims she does not really remember the account – a sign of instability – then she would have stuck to her original story instead of misleading everyone in the case by bringing up new twists to the tale. In theory, that is what happened throughout her confinement.
This indicates that she was of sound mind. Her pre-planned kidnapping and murder to obtain the baby as her own, and then trying to change her stories to cover up her acts is unjustifiable. Justice must be served.
Nagra, a psychology senior, can be reached via [email protected]
