'Baby Cut From Womb With Kitchen Knife' Does this women deserve the death sentence?

Question

A woman accused of killing a pregnant woman and stealing the baby from the victim's womb is going on trial in the United States.

On trial: Lisa Montgomery 39, is charged with the kidnapping and resulting death of Bobbie Jo Stinnett.

It is alleged Montgomery strangled Ms Stinnett, 23, and used a kitchen knife to cut the baby from her womb and take her as her own.

The baby, Victoria Jo Stinnett, survived the attack in December 2004 in Kansas City, Missouri.

It is believed the accused was nine months into a fake pregnancy and was desperate for a baby because her family were asking questions about her pregnancy.

Montgomery has pleaded not guilty and her lawyers have said they plan to use insanity as a defence.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1287118,00.html

If this woman gets to live then maybe baby Victoria Jo Stinnett will worry about what this woman could do to her for the rest of her life.

Answer 1

She murdered a young woman, and took away the child's mother, aswell as putting the child at very high risk of death too, she also probably took away someone's wife/girlfriend, and someone's daughter and maybe sister. Lots of people have been very hurt by this, and yes she should be dealt with in the best way possible in that country. I live in the uk and we don't have a death sentance any more, as our government would rather make us all pay to look after these murderers and give them treats in prison and let them out for good behaviour. I personally would like to see the lethal injection made legal for people who we can 100% prove that they did the murder. They take a life, why should they be spared? I hope this evil woman gets what she deserves. Insane, maybe, but if she is that insane she should not be kept alive. If a dog bites someone we have them put down, so why don't we have this rule for humans who kill????

Answer 2

Lets throw it all out the window, and that leave the woman out the window too. It's her body, does she wish to risk her life to have a baby? Because that's what she does. We do have, even in this country, a rather high maternal death rate, higher than a lot of countries. If you want a baby, great, I'm all for it, have as many as you can afford, but if you are a woman who doesn't want to take that risk you need a safe alternative. Babies don't spend nine months in a cabbage leaf, if a woman wants to be a mother and an incubator and take those risks, great, but if she doesn't why condemn her, her husband, children to being without their mother and wife, because she got pregnant again? Live, born, living women should have the simple right to decide what happens to their bodies. And how can anyone seriously make law compelling a woman to live nine months with the results of a rape? And then go through agony to deliver the rapists' child, who, by the way may have parental rights requiring the father to see the child?

Answer 3

Yes she does deserve the death penalty. She is guilty without a shadow of a doubt and the killing was totally unprovoked and not self defence. She took someones daughter, mother, wife. Those people have to live with that sadness every day! She also could have killed an innocent baby who didn't stand a chance. As it has been proven that she did it, I see no reason at all why the death penalty shouldn't be implicated. If she is let off with insanity as the excuse, then what is stopping people from always using insanity as an excuse for murder? I believe that if the death penalty were brought in the UK for murders, paedophiles, rapists etc. that were proven guilty without any doubt, then the UK might be a better and safer place!

Answer 4

There was a case here in Ohio about close to this too. And obviously a woman who would do the unthinkable as to stalk a pregnant woman (premeditated) for the sake of taking the baby has some very obvious mental disorders. That is what her attorney will use as her defense. This does not make right what she did, and she will go though extreme psychological stuff before the trial, but either they go to prison or a mental hospital forever - either way, they are out of society. Pray for the mother and the baby, but also that mental health care gets funding from this society instead of war!

Answer 5

Absolutely. There is no doubt she was guilty of murder and abduction not to mention putting the baby's life in serious danger too. It was unprovoked and premeditated. This is exactly the type of crime that deserves the death penalty. But yes, she will probably be judged insane instead.

So what is the difference between insanity and pure evil? Just because we cannot understand how a sane person can do something like that, does that make that person insane? Or does it just make her evil?

Answer 6

It is totally shocking .....

I can remember reading about this sometime back and felt shocked...

I am not a supporter of the death penalty .. but i know in some us states it is the norm ....

I can not imagine the pain the mother went through and i am pleased the baby survived ..

Montgomery's actions were that of a mad woman without a shadow of a doubt ..

Her lawyers will argue this strongly and no doubt she will be instituted for the rest of her life ..

In this case i guess i would support the death penalty ..

Answer 7

Want to know the scary part about this? Its not the first time its happened. As crazy and impossible as it sounds murdering pregnant women for their babies has happened several times before and after this case.
And YES she should get the death penalty. She is a evil human being. No offense to women but im tired of ladies getting lighter sentences simply because of being a female. Had it been a man there would be no question about it, he would be on his way to death row.

Answer 8

Unfortunately these cases are not uncommon enough. I've heard of this before.

Logically one would say the person is either insane or there is a gap in the deterrent legislation.

Maybe the sentencing should plug any gap, to reduce the chance of this happening again. It's fairly well given that anyone who commits a crime thinks they're not going to be caught so deterrents are all that is left.

Answer 9

The insanity defence is used far too often. You could argue that no "balanced" person would commit such a crime but that does not mean we should regard the culprit as being in need of care rather than punishment. Society needs to be protected from anyone capable of this no matter what the reason.

Answer 10

Amazingly this is similar to the plotline of a Daryll Hannah movie called Hide and Seek.

Its hard to imagine something so horrific happening in the real world.

I'd say send her to the loony bin rather than jail or death sentence. A person with a normally functioning brain couldn't do this.