A US woman will be executed for the first time in 67 years on Tuesday for the murder of a pregnant woman back in 2004.

Lisa Montgomery, 52, is set to be killed by lethal injection on January 12 as President Trump’s administration sign off their time in office having carried out the most federal executions of any presidential term in the last 130 years.

Montgomery was convicted of the killing of Bobbie Jo Stinnett in 2007 after the court heard that she strangled her before cutting the premature infant from her womb and leaving with the child.

After her arrest the following day, the baby - Victoria Jo Stinnett - was safely returned to her father.

But despite her heinous crime, there has been a groundswell of people who have come out in support of Montgomery due to the physical and mental abuse she had received prior to committing the crime.

Montgomery’s mother - along with her various boyfriends at the time - psychologically and sexually abused both her and her half-sister Diane Mattingly as young children.

Mattingly would eventually escape her troubled childhood as she was put into foster care.

But Montgomery stayed with her mother, a life which involved incest, child sex trafficking, gang rape, physical abuse and neglect.

And Mattingly believes that was a major contributing factor to the tragic act her sibling would go on to commit.

"One sister got taken out and got put into a loving home and was nurtured and had time to heal," Mattingly said as reported by the BBC. 

"The other sister stayed in that situation, and it got worse and worse and worse. And then at the end, she was broken."

Doctors have confirmed Montgomery suffered ‘congenital brain damage’ and 'multiple traumatic brain injuries’ which her legal counsel say ‘have resulted in incurable and significant psychiatric disabilities’.

Her attorneys added: "We do not mean to suggest that Mrs. Montgomery should not be punished. 

"She should. We do not make excuses for her actions. Everything about this case is overwhelmingly sad.

"As human beings we want to turn away. It is easy to call Mrs. Montgomery evil and a monster, as the Government has. She is neither."