The Supreme Court on Wednesday opened the way for the federal execution of Lisa Montgomery – the only woman on federal death row in the United States.
In a matter of hours, the high court evicted two periods of execution to allow the Federal Prison Department to put Montgomery to death.
She will be the first federally executed woman in the United States since 1953.
The Supreme Court decision came a day after a federal judge in Indiana granted Montgomery the suspension of execution for mental health reasons.
Montgomery, the so-called “womb invader,” was convicted in 2007 of the murder of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the city of Skidmore in northwest Missouri.
She used a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then cut the girl from the womb with a kitchen knife, officials said.
Montgomery’s lawyers have argued that she has mental problems and cannot understand that she would be put to death.
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