Death Row – The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli

Rape, Sex Trafficking & Domestic Violence Victim Begs Trump for Execution Pardon

Lisa Montgomery
Photo Credit: Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide

Lisa Montgomery is petitioning Donald Trump for a stay of execution prior to her scheduled execution date of December 8, 2020.

Lisa is hoping that her past traumas, horrific life experiences & mental illness would move the president to give her a second chance at a better life.

Here is her letter:

Dear President Trump,

We ask you to extend mercy to Lisa Montgomery, a victim of multiple rapes, child sex trafficking, and domestic violence. Lisa was sentenced to death by a jury that was never informed of the full extent and impact of the sexual violence and physical abuse she endured. As a result of her trauma, she is now so mentally ill that she must receive multiple medications to prevent full-blown psychosis.

We also ask you at a minimum to grant a stay of execution. We believe Lisa deserves a full and fair opportunity to petition the courts to stay her execution, as well as an opportunity to present comprehensive arguments to you and your administration as to why her death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment. This cannot happen in the midst of a global pandemic.

The story of Lisa’s life is worse than a nightmare. She was born with permanent brain damage caused by her mother’s drinking during pregnancy. A child of extreme poverty, she was repeatedly raped by her stepfather. She was routinely beaten and terrorized by her mother. Lisa’s mother trafficked her to men who were allowed to rape Lisa in exchange for utilities and other services. Although this was suspected or known by teachers, police, and the courts, nobody intervened to protect Lisa.

This horror continued when she married her stepbrother at the urging of her mother at the age of 18. He continued the cycle of abuse, raping and beating her. Not surprisingly, this lifetime of torture exacerbated Lisa’s genetic predisposition to mental illness, and caused her to develop a dissociative disorder in addition to complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Her severe trauma and mental illness led directly to the crime for which she was convicted – the murder of a pregnant woman and the kidnapping of her child.

At her trial, prosecutors used gender stereotypes against Lisa, repeatedly casting her as unfit mother and homemaker, telling jurors that she didn’t go to her children’s events, and that “[s]he didn’t cook, and [s]he didn’t clean,” and kept a “filthy home.” The prosecution trivialized the evidence of her being repeatedly raped as a child, calling it the “abuse excuse.”

The lifetime of rape and sexual torture that Lisa endured is not an ‘abuse excuse.’ It was her horrific life story that the jury should have considered in deciding whether she was someone who deserved to live or die. The jury was never given that opportunity. President Trump, please consider this evidence and spare Lisa Montgomery’s life. Spending the rest of her life in prison is more than adequate punishment for this crime given Lisa’s traumatic history and mental illness.

Sign the Petition to grant Lisa Montgomery a pardon of execution.

22 Year Old Man Texas Man Sentenced To Death Row

Texas’ death row is getting its first inmate of 2015, ending a 10-month hiatus in death sentences imposed by juries in the nation’s most active capital punishment state.

A Brazos County jury decided after seven hours of deliberation Wednesday that 22-year-old Gabriel Hall should be executed for an attack that left a man dead and his wife injured at the couple’s home in College Station, about 100 miles northwest of Houston.

The lull in death sentences in Texas is similar to what other capital punishment states have experienced in recent years. The Texas hiatus is believed to be the longest the state has seen since the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in a Georgia case in 1972, effectively halted executions.

Statistics kept by the Death Penalty Information Center show 73 people nationwide were sentenced to die last year. In 1996, the nation’s death rows swelled by 315 inmates.

Georgia Sets New Execution Date For Only Woman On Death Row

Via The Associated Press– The Georgia Department of Corrections has set a new execution date for the only woman on the state’s death row.

The department said in a statement Monday that Commissioner Homer Bryson has set Kelly Renee Gissendaner’s execution for Sept. 29 at the state prison in Jackson.
Gissendaner would be the first woman to be executed in the state in seven decades.

Gissendaner was convicted of murder in the February 1997 slaying of her husband. Prosecutors say she conspired with her lover, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death.

Gissendaner was previously scheduled for execution in February, but that was delayed because of a threat of winter weather. Her execution was reset for March 2, but corrections officials postponed that execution “out of an abundance of caution” because the execution drug appeared “cloudy.”

Read more about Kelly Gissendaner