A Kansas woman was executed on Wednesday for strangling an expectant mother in Missouri and cutting the baby from her womb, the first time in nearly seven decades that the US government has put to death a female inmate. Lisa Montgomery, 52, was pronounced dead at 1.31 am after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.

11th to be executed
She was the 11th prisoner to receive a lethal injection there since July when President Donald Trump, an ardent supporter of capital punishment, resumed federal executions following 17 years without one. As the execution process began, a woman standing over Montgomery’s shoulder leaned over, and asked her if she had any last words. “No,” Montgomery responded in a muffled voice.