WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge said the Justice Department illegally rescheduled the execution of the only woman on federal death row, potentially configuring the Trump administration to schedule the execution after President-elect Joe Biden took office.
U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss also canceled an order by the director of the Bureau of Prisons that set Lisa Montgomery’s date of execution for January 12. Montgomery had been sentenced to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, this month, but Moss delayed the execution after his lawyers contracted coronavirus visiting his client and asked him to extend the deadline for filing a clemency petition.
Moss forbade the Bureau of Prisons to carry out the execution of Lisa Montgomery before the end of the year and the authorities rescheduled her execution date for January 12th. But Moss decided on Wednesday that the agency was also prohibited from rescheduling the date while the suspension was in effect.
“The Court therefore concludes that the Director’s order setting a new date of execution while the Court’s suspension was in effect ‘was not in accordance with the law,'” wrote Moss.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the order, the Bureau of Prisons cannot reschedule Montgomery’s execution until at least January 1. Generally, under the Department of Justice guidelines, a prisoner sentenced to death must be notified at least 20 days before execution. Because of the judge’s order, if the Justice Department decides to reschedule the date in January, it could mean that the execution will be scheduled after Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
Biden “opposes the death penalty now and in the future” and would work as president to end his use in office, spokesman TJ Ducklo told The Associated Press. But Biden’s representatives did not say whether executions would be halted immediately after Biden’s inauguration.
Montgomery was convicted of the murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, in Skidmore, Northwest Missouri, in December 2004. She used a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then a kitchen knife. to cut the girl’s uterus, officials said.
Prosecutors said Montgomery removed the baby from Stinnett’s body, took the child with her and tried to make the girl his own. Montgomery’s legal team argued that his client suffers from severe mental illness.
“Given the severity of Mrs. Montgomery’s mental illness, the sexual and physical torture she endured throughout her life and the connection between her trauma and the facts of her crime, we call on President Trump to grant his mercy and commute his sentence for life in prison, ”said one of Montgomery’s lawyers, Sandra Babcock, in a statement.
Two other federal inmates are expected to be executed in January, but have had positive results for coronaviruses and their lawyers are also looking for delays in their executions.
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