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The execution of Lisa Montgomery, the only woman sentenced to federal death, has been delayed for the second time.
Montgomery, 52, was sentenced to death in 2008 for killing a pregnant woman four years earlier and stealing her fetus. The baby survived.
Michael Conroy / AP
The federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Montgomery’s execution was initially scheduled for December 8, but two of his attorneys contracted coronavirus.
The federal government tried to reschedule the execution for January 12, but a judge ruled Thursday (local time) that the date violated court rules. The Associated Press reported.
READ MORE:
* The Trump administration plans a second execution in as many days
* Trump speeds up the pace of executions ahead of Biden’s inauguration
* The United States will execute the woman who killed the victim, cut the baby from the womb
* The US government will execute prisoners for the first time since 2003
United States District Court Judge Randolph Moss said the Bureau of Prisons could not set a date for Montgomery’s death until January 1, according to the AP.
Justice Department guidelines require executions to be scheduled 20 days in advance, which means the Montgomery executions could be scheduled for January 20. That would be the exact same day President-elect Joe Biden, who opposes the death penalty, will take office.
Montgomery was convicted of strangling Bobbie Jo Stinnett to death in the small town of Skidmore, Missouri on December 16, 2004. Montgomery then ripped open Stinnett, 23, and stole her baby.
Montgomery’s attorneys argued that she should not be eligible for the death penalty because she suffered from mental illness caused by child abuse.
President Donald Trump’s administration has executed 10 people since July, the most of any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, although Roosevelt’s executions took place over eight years instead of seven months.
Two more people, Cory Johnson and Dustin John Higgs, are scheduled to be executed before Biden’s inauguration.
Montgomery would be the first woman to be executed by the federal government since 1953.
The girl kidnapped by Montgomery is now 16 years old and lives with her father, a CBS affiliate from Kansas City. KCTV reported.
– New York Daily News
