US court clears way for execution of woman who removed baby from uterus

A United States appeals court has cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

The ruling, delivered today by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, found that a lower court judge was wrong when he overturned Lisa Montgomery’s execution date in an order la last week.

United States District Court Judge Randolph Moss had ruled that the Justice Department illegally rescheduled Montgomery’s execution and overturned an order from the director of the Bureau of Prisons that scheduled his death for January 12.

Montgomery was scheduled to be executed at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, in December, but Moss delayed the execution after his lawyers contracted coronavirus while visiting his client and asked him to extend the time to file a petition for clemency.

Moss concluded that, per 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, a Montgomery attorney, said her legal team would ask the full appeals court to review the case and said Montgomery should not be executed on January 12.

Montgomery was convicted of killing 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the northwestern Missouri town of Skidmore in December 2004.

Montgomery drove from her home in Kansas to Stinnett’s home in Skidmore under the guise of adopting a puppy, prosecutors said.

When she got to the home, Montgomery used a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, but Stinnett was conscious and trying to defend herself while Montgomery used a kitchen knife to cut the girl out of the womb, authorities said.

Prosecutors said Montgomery removed the baby from Stinnett’s body, took the boy with her, and tried to pass the girl off as his own.

Montgomery’s attorneys argued that she had been suffering from delusions when she killed Stinnett, but a jury rejected her defense. His attorneys had also argued that he suffered from pseudocytosis, which causes a woman to falsely believe that she is pregnant and show external signs of pregnancy.

President-elect Biden opposes the death penalty and his spokesman, TJ Ducklo, has said he will work to end its use. But Biden has not said whether he will stop federal executions after he takes office on January 20.