Lisa Montgomery Executed After SCOTUS Clears the Way

Lisa Montgomery was executed tonight for the 2004 murder of 23 year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett.  The execution took place after the Supreme Court wiped away what has become the routine carnival of defense counsel’s obtaining last-minute stays from friendly district courts, generally with arguments that could have been (or were) presented months or years before.  The New York Times has the story here.  Kent covered it last week here.

From sympathetic accounts, Montgomery led a dreadful life.  But no one forced her to undertake the gruesome murder of a completely innocent person, then cut open her belly to take her baby.