Kansas City, Mo., Oct 29, 2007 / 08:53 am
A Jury on Friday recommended the death penalty in the case of a woman who killed an expectant mother and cut the baby from her womb, the Associated Press reports.
Jurors deliberated for more than five hours before recommending the sentence for Lisa Montgomery. A judge will sentence Montgomery, but he is obligated to follow the jury's recommendation.
Montgomery, 39, was convicted on Monday of kidnapping and killing Bobbie Jo Stinnett on December 16, 2004 in the town of Skidmore. The next day Montgomery was presenting the newborn child as her own before her arrest later in the day.
Prosecutors argued for the death penalty because of the violence of her crime and evidence it was premeditated. Montgomery had made internet searches on performing caesarean sections.
Defense attorney Fred Duchardt claimed childhood sexual abuse caused Montgomery to become mentally ill. He said emotional abuse from her mother and sexual abuse from her stepfather "killed Lisa's soul."
"I'm not ashamed to ask you all for mercy," Duchardt told the jury. "I ask for it on behalf of Lisa and all the people who love her."