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.
Johnson, 52, was sentenced to death in 1993, when he was in his early 20s. Tried as a âdrug kingpinâ alongside two other men under the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, he was convicted of seven murders â a shocking body count that many would associate with the âworst of the worst.â Yet the case would not likely end in a death sentence today. There was significant proof that Johnson had an intellectual disability, which should have forbidden him from being sentenced to death. But reviewing courts refused to consider the evidence.
Regardless, Breedenâs task was not to judge Johnson for his crimes. As Johnsonâs spiritual adviser, his job was to prepare him to die. âI donât care who you are or what youâve done,â he said. âI think when youâre dying, life should give you the gift of being in the presence of somebody who cares, instead of just people who are paid to kill you.â Breeden knew that many on death row had little s
The executions at the end of Donald Trump's presidency, completed in short windows over a few weeks, likely acted as a superspreader event, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press.
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.
At the time of the crime, she suffered from pseudocyesis, a rare psychiatric condition where she falsely believed she was pregnant and experienced the same hormonal and body changes.