The Supreme Court aligned itself with the Tump administration on Tuesday to determine that Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, should be executed.
Why it matters: Montgomery, 52, is expected to become the first federal inmate to be sentenced to death in 67 years.
Of importance: On Tuesday, a federal judge granted Montgomery a suspension of execution hours before his death by lethal injection at a federal prison complex in Indiana.
- Montgomery’s lawyers argued that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of people like Montgomery who, “due to their serious mental illness or brain damage, do not understand the basis of their executions”.
Details: The Supreme Court voted 6-3 in favor of the decision. The three liberal judges disagreed.
The big picture: Federal executions were paralyzed for 16 years, until the Trump administration resumed the federal death penalty last July, notes Oriana Gonzalez de Axios.
- Montgomery was one of three inmates the Justice Department planned to be executed this week, a week before President-elect Biden took office, who is against the federal death penalty.
Bottom: Montgomery was convicted in 2004 of the murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, who was eight months pregnant, cutting her baby from the belly and kidnapping the child, who survived the attack.
Go deeper: Trump’s last word on executions
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