Published on: Wednesday, November 11, 2020

More than 1,000 advocates—including current and former prosecutors, anti-trafficking organizations and mental health groups—have urged the president to spare the life of the only woman on federal death row (article available here).

Lisa Montgomery, 52, who was convicted of federal kidnapping resulting in death in 2007, is set to killed at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on December 8.

But in a series of letters, a broad coalition of advocates have asked Trump to commute Montgomery's sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. They say Montgomery should not be put to death because she has severe mental illness, endured sexual abuse as a child and was trafficked as a teen. "Lisa's experiences as a victim of horrific sexual violence, physical abuse, and being trafficked as a child do not excuse her crime," a group of 41 current and former prosecutors wrote in one of the letters."

They are joined by hundreds of organizations that advocate for women, children and people with mental illnesses.

A letter from 800 organizations, survivors and individuals that work to combat violence against women said Montgomery had suffered "a lifetime of horrific abuses" and "was consistently failed by people and systems that should have helped her." The letter says Montgomery was first sexually abused by her stepfather, who repeatedly raped her and allowed friends to gang-rape her. As a teenager she was trafficked to men by her mother.

A letter from the heads of three groups that advocate for people with serious mental health illnesses said Montgomery was born with brain damage because of her mother's abuse of alcohol while pregnant and also "inherited a genetic predisposition to serious mental illness from both sides of her family."

If Montgomery's execution goes ahead, she would be the first woman executed by the federal government in almost 70 years.

She would also be the ninth federal inmate put to death since the federal government resumed executions in July after nearly 20 years.