On Friday, a federal appeals court opened the way for the execution of the only woman on federal death row later this month.
According to the Associated Press, the panel of three US Court of Appeals judges for the District of Columbia ruled that a first instance judge wrongly vacated Lisa Montgomery’s execution date last week.
US District Court Judge Randolph Moss delayed execution originally scheduled for December at Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., after Montgomery’s lawyers hired COVID-19 while visiting their client.
Moss forbade the Bureau of Prisons to carry out the execution before the end of the year, and authorities rescheduled for January 12. But Moss determined that the agency was also prohibited from rescheduling the date while the suspension was in effect, the AP said at the time.
The appeals panel on Friday, however, disagreed with that decision, paving the way for Montgomery’s execution a few days before the president-elect Joe Biden
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The Trump administration resumed federal executions this year, after a 17-year hiatus in practice, executing more prisoners in 2020 than all states that still apply the death penalty combined, according to a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Montgomery’s lawyers tried to prevent his execution, citing serious mental illnesses, and Biden repeatedly voiced his opposition to the death penalty.
Although Biden has not indicated whether to stop federal executions on taking office, a spokesman, TJ Ducklo, said the former vice president would aim to end the practice, the AP reported.
Montgomery was convicted in 2007 of strangling a woman who was eight months pregnant at the time. Montgomery removed the surviving fetus from Bobbie Jo Stinnet’s uterus after the murder.
Prosecutors said Montgomery then took the girl with her and tried to pass her by.