Lisa Montgomery: Execution date of single woman on federal death row on hold, potentially pushing date for the Biden administration

Lisa Montgomery: Execution date of single woman on federal death row on hold, potentially pushing date for the Biden administration

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Lisa Montgomery was scheduled to be executed on December 8, after she was convicted in 2004 for strangling a Missouri woman who was eight months pregnant to death, cutting the baby and kidnapping him. The baby survived.

The execution date this month was postponed by the court because two of Montgomery’s lawyers, who planned to ask for clemency for her, fell ill with coronavirus.
Lisa Montgomery in a reserve photo released on December 20, 2004 in Kansas City, Kansas. Montgomery is accused of murdering pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett, cutting the fetus from her body and claiming the baby alive as his own.

The Justice Department said it intended to reschedule Montgomery’s execution date for January 12, but DC District Court Judge Randy Moss wrote on Thursday that it did not follow the proper schedule under the previous court order, delaying the rescheduling of the farthest execution date.

“The district court’s decision requires the government to follow the law by not setting an execution date for Lisa Montgomery while execution is suspended,” Sandra Babcock, one of Montgomery’s lawyers, said in a statement on Thursday. “Given the severity of Ms. 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 (Donald) Trump to grant his mercy and commute your sentence to life in prison. “

The Trump administration has overseen 10 federal executions in the last months of his presidency, most in a single year in the United States in decades, and a revival after years without any. Montgomery would be the first woman executed by the US government since 1953.

Biden pledged to abolish the federal death penalty and to encourage states to stop seeking death sentences.

But it is unclear how the new Biden government will handle the executions scheduled by President Donald Trump after he leaves office. More than three dozen members of Congress are pressing the Biden government to prioritize an end to the federal death penalty.

CNN’s Christina Carrega and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.

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