US court clears way for execution of only woman on death row
A US federal appeals court has cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
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The ruling, handed down Friday by a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, concluded that a lower court judge erred when he vacated Lisa Montgomery’s execution date in an order last week.
US District Court Judge Randolph Moss had ruled the Justice Department unlawfully rescheduled Montgomery’s execution and he vacated an order from the director of the Bureau of Prisons scheduling her death for January 12.
Montgomery had been scheduled to be put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, in December, but Moss delayed the execution after her attorneys contracted coronavirus visiting their client and asked him to extend the time to file a clemency petition.
Federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind where Lisa Montgomery was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection. (File photo: AP)
Moss concluded that the under his order the Bureau of Prisons could not even reschedule Montgomery’s execution until at least January 1. But the appeals panel disagreed.
Meaghan VerGow, an attorney for Montgomery, said her legal team would ask for the full appeals court to review the case and said Montgomery should not be executed on January 12.
#USA appeals court has reinstated execution date of Jan 12 for #LisaMontgomery, only woman on federal death penalty. If executed she would be first female to be executed in 70 years. Lisa strangled a pregnant woman before cutting out & kidnapping baby in 2004 in #Missouri #LISA pic.twitter.com/EwmqomRe20
— The World Reviews (@tworldreviews) January 2, 2021
Montgomery was convicted of killing 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore in December 2004. She used a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then cut the baby girl from the womb with a kitchen knife, authorities said. Montgomery took the child with her and attempted to pass the girl off as her own, prosecutors said.
Montgomery’s lawyers have argued that their client suffers from serious mental illnesses. Biden opposes the death penalty and his spokesman, TJ Ducklo, has said he would work to end its use. But Biden has not said whether he will halt federal executions after he takes office January 20.
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