Why Lisa Montgomery became the first woman to be put to death by the US federal government in 70 years

At face value, the crime she committed was a calculated act of such horror and cruelty it defied belief. 

In 2004, Lisa Montgomery (then 36) drove from her home in Kansas to Skidmore in Missouri under the pretence of buying a puppy from Bobbie Jo Stinnett, a woman she had befriended online through their shared love of dogs.

Bobbie Jo (23) was eight months pregnant with her first child. When her visitor arrived, Bobbie Jo let her in. Lisa then overpowered her, strangled her with a rope and cut her belly open with a kitchen knife. She prised the baby out and passed the tiny girl off as her own for several hours before she was arrested the following day when Bobbie Jo’s body was found. The baby was returned to her father.