United States: green light for execution of first woman in 70 years – North America



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(ANSA) – ROME, JANUARY 02 – A United States Court of Appeals has given the green light to the execution of Lisa Montgomery, the only woman currently sentenced to death in the country: if the sentence is applied, on January 12, Montgomery will become the first inmate in a federal prison to be executed in nearly 70 years.

The woman was sentenced to death for strangling a pregnant woman in 2004 and extracting the fetus from her body, which she later abducted.

According to international media reports, the execution was originally scheduled for last month, but was called off after one of the woman’s lawyers fell ill from Covid. The Justice Department then set the new date for January 12, but Montgomery’s attorneys argued that the date could not be set while a stay of execution was in effect.

Therefore, a judge of a juvenile court had agreed with the defense, but yesterday three judges of the Washington DC Court of Appeals reversed their decision, giving the green light to the execution. The woman’s lawyers have already announced that they will appeal their decision.

The last woman to be executed by the United States government was Bonnie Heady, who died in a gas chamber in Missouri in 1953. (ANSA).

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