Actually I have. The crimes are horrific. But so's what happened before them.

Take Lisa Montgomery (a human with a name). She's the woman who killed another pregnant woman.

From 8 years old, Lisa was raped repeatedly by her mother & stepfather. Their friends raped her too. /1 https://twitter.com/mkr071068/status/1331783348767711232

To "punish" Lisa, her mother & stepfather stripped her naked, and severely beat her. In addition to the trauma from being repeatedly raped as a child, she suffered from severe neurological disorders and seizures--which doctors attributed to the severe beatings she'd received. /2

At 18 years old, Lisa was forced to marry her 25-year-old stepbrother. He, too, physically and sexually assaulted her.

She became depressed and dissociative. Had 4 kids. Got a tubal ligation because her mother forced her to.

Her mental health deteriorated further . . . /3

...and despite her tubal ligation, she apparently legitimately believed that she was pregnant several times (even though that was impossible). Even bought cribs.

She divorced her stepbrother. Remarried. Told her new husband she was pregnant. /4

At that point, her stepbrother/ex-husband--who had repeatedly raped and beat her--filed for custody of her children and threatened to tell her new husband about her tubal ligation.

That's when she committed her horrific, horrific crime. /5

Again, I'll reiterate: the crime was horrific. Horrible. Unthinkable. There's no question about that. I can't begin to imagine the pain felt by the family of the victim.

But given all of that: still think we should be rushing to kill Lisa Montgomery? /6

Still think the Trump DOJ should be rushing to end that life that'd been filled with rape, physical abuse, trauma?

What do we accomplish by snuffing out the life whose course was charted by the adults who imposed such pain and trauma and suffering? What? /7

Lisa was as much a victim as she was a person who committed a crime. There's little doubt that her path to committing that crime was set by the horrific abuse she endured.

So: do we kill Lisa? Really? In some ways, aren't we killing her precisely because *she was a victim*? /8

I focus on Lisa, @mkr071068, because you highlighted the horrific nature of her crime. Again: it was, indeed, horrific. But scratch the surface, and I think it's very hard to think that she should be condemned to death.

But here's the thing: Lisa's story isn't unique. /9

We like to think of neat divisions between "good" and "bad"; "criminals" and "victims"; etc.

But the real world ain't like that.

Many (if not most) of the time, the people who commit horrific crimes were themselves victims of horrific abuse, neglect--or worse. /10

So I ask you, legitimately: if you think Lisa should be put to death, how do you justify it?

If you now think she shouldn't, where do you draw the line? What level of abuse and trauma as a child is enough to spare someone from the ultimate and irrevocable sentence of death? /11

My position is this: we shouldn't be engaging in these judgments. Full stop.

No person (or group of people) on this Earth should be given the power and authority to decide another person should lose their life.

End the death penalty. /fin