Our culture’s lingering stigma of mental illness means that adverse childhood experiences and their relationship to criminal behaviour remain woefully ignored. (File photo: Tingey Injury Law Firm/Unsplash)
The execution of Lisa Montgomery in Indiana in January made headlines around the world. She was the first female inmate executed by the federal government since 1953. Montgomery faced the death penalty for strangling pregnant 23-year old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in 2004. Montgomery cut the unborn baby from Stinnett’s womb, claiming the child as her own.
Montgomery was a woman described as damaged and delusional, who suffered from depression, schizophrenia, personality disorder, PTSD and traumatic brain injury. She experienced psychosis and believed God spoke to her through connect-the-dot puzzles.
Houston
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Indiana
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