Human Rights Tribunal Calls for Stay of Execution for Lisa Montgomery

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the human rights body charged with over­see­ing Western Hemisphere nations’ com­pli­ance with human rights oblig­a­tions, has called on the United States to halt the sched­uled January 12, 2021 exe­cu­tion of Lisa Montgomery.

Citing Montgomery’s his­to­ry of extreme trau­ma and men­tal ill­ness and the irre­versibil­i­ty of exe­cu­tion, the IACHR ruled on December 1, 2020, that Montgomery had pre­sent­ed seri­ous claims that her exe­cu­tion and her cur­rent con­di­tions of con­fine­ment vio­late her human rights. The com­mis­sion asked the U.S. to refrain from car­ry­ing out her exe­cu­tion until it could resolve the issues raised in her petition. 

The pre­lim­i­nary rul­ing in the case came in response to a peti­tion filed by lawyers from Montgomery’s legal team and the Death Penalty Clinic at Cornell Law School on November 5, that alleged the United States had com­mit­ted mul­ti­ple vio­la­tions of Montgomery’s human rights. Montgomery’s lawyers urged the com­mis­sion to issue ​“pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures” — the equiv­a­lent of an injunc­tion — to stay her execution. 

The peti­tion claimed that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment was vio­lat­ing Montgomery’s human rights in five dis­tinct ways. First, it pre­sent­ed evi­dence that Montgomery suf­fers from debil­i­tat­ing men­tal ill­ness and argued that, as a result, her exe­cu­tion vio­lates inter­na­tion­al law and U.S. human rights oblig­a­tions under the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man. It also asserts that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment ​“pro­vid­ed Mrs. Montgomery with incom­pe­tent lawyers who failed to present pow­er­ful mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence at her tri­al,” in vio­la­tion of U.S. treaty oblig­a­tions to pro­vide fair legal process. Additionally, it charges that the U.S. vio­lat­ed its oblig­a­tions under human rights treaties when it failed to take steps to pro­tect Montgomery from severe child abuse and sex­u­al vio­lence, despite being aware that she faced immi­nent risk of vio­lence. The peti­tion also raised two issues regard­ing the fed­er­al government’s con­duct in con­nec­tion with the exe­cu­tion. It details the degrad­ing con­di­tions of con­fine­ment in which Montgomery is cur­rent­ly being detained and alleges that those con­di­tions vio­late her human right to humane treat­ment. Finally, it argues that sched­ul­ing Montgomery’s exe­cu­tion in the midst of a glob­al pan­dem­ic denies her access to the courts and a fair clemen­cy process, in vio­la­tion of her treaty rights to peti­tion the gov­ern­ment for redress and to due process.

Montgomery’s peti­tion details a life­time of hor­rif­ic abuse com­pound­ed by insti­tu­tion­al fail­ures by those who were in a posi­tion to pro­tect her. Montgomery was born with brain dam­age because of her mother’s alco­hol use dur­ing preg­nan­cy. Her old­er sis­ter, Diane, was sex­u­al­ly abused while Lisa, then just four years old, was shar­ing the same bed. Lisa, how­ev­er, was left behind when social ser­vices removed Diane from the home, sub­ject­ing her to even more savage abuse. 

When Lisa was a teenag­er, she was raped two or three times a week by her mother’s hus­band, who threat­ened to rape her younger sis­ter or kill her fam­i­ly if she resist­ed. At age 15, Lisa was traf­ficked by her moth­er, who sold her for sex in exchange for util­i­ties and ser­vices. Social ser­vices inves­ti­gat­ed her sit­u­a­tion once, but announced the vis­it in advance, allow­ing her fam­i­ly to hide signs of abuse. School admin­is­tra­tors had rea­son to believe Lisa was being abused, but did not inves­ti­gate fur­ther. Lisa’s rape was known to a doc­tor who was a man­dat­ed reporter and to a Child Welfare Office. But nei­ther report­ed it to police or pur­sued fur­ther action. Because of the depth and inten­si­ty of the trau­ma she expe­ri­enced, Montgomery devel­oped dis­so­cia­tive dis­or­der, a men­tal ill­ness that sev­ers her con­nec­tion with real­i­ty. According to trau­ma experts, she ​“devel­oped com­plex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a dis­ease caused by per­va­sive, long-stand­ing trau­mat­ic events. She would con­tin­ue to re-expe­ri­ence her tor­ture as if it was actually reoccurring.”

The IACHR deci­sion request­ed that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment guar­an­tee Montgomery con­di­tions of deten­tion that adhere to inter­na­tion­al human rights stan­dards, pro­vide her with appro­pri­ate health care for her phys­i­cal and men­tal con­di­tions, and refrain from exe­cut­ing her in order to give the com­mis­sion time to reach a deci­sion on her peti­tion. In address­ing the con­di­tions in which the Federal Bureau of Prisons has con­fined Montgomery in the lead up to her exe­cu­tion, the commission wrote: 

“The appli­ca­tion indi­cates that Ms. Montgomery is held in soli­tary con­fine­ment in a freez­ing cell, under twen­ty-four hour video sur­veil­lance, that she is only allowed to wear a gown and not allowed to wear under­wear. Since October 16, 2020, the author­i­ties placed her in a sin­gle cell by her­self, with­out access to any oth­er pris­on­ers, guard­ed twen­ty-four hours a day. She does not leave her cell, except to show­er three times a week or for legal vis­its. Her cell includes only a con­crete bunk, a rub­ber mat­tress, a sink and a toi­let; the lights remain illu­mi­nat­ed twen­ty-four hours a day and the light­ing does not vary. The appli­cants indi­cate that, ever since she has been under these con­di­tions, she has faint­ed twice.” The Commission not­ed that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment had not con­test­ed these allegations.

The com­mis­sion found that the prison author­i­ties’ refusal to allow Montgomery the use of under­wear, while male guards can see her on a cell mon­i­tor at all times ​“depriv[es] her from any pri­va­cy or inti­ma­cy. … These con­di­tions,” the com­mis­sion wrote, ​“are not ade­quate for a woman sur­vivor of sex­u­al vio­lence, espe­cial­ly con­sid­er­ing the very seri­ous infor­ma­tion of sex­u­al abuse dur­ing [her] life that would have caused her dif­fer­ent trau­mas and illnesses.”

Montgomery was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on December 8, 2020, but her exe­cu­tion was stayed after her attor­neys con­tract­ed COVID-19 as a result of trav­el­ing to meet with her. Their infec­tions pre­vent­ed them from com­plet­ing Montgomery’s clemen­cy peti­tion in time, so a judge grant­ed a stay, and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment resched­uled her exe­cu­tion for January 12, 2021. More than 1,000 advo­cates, includ­ing cur­rent and for­mer pros­e­cu­tors, activists fight­ing sex traf­fick­ing and domes­tic vio­lence, and men­tal health orga­ni­za­tions have called on President Trump to grant clemen­cy to Montgomery.