No date has yet been set for the competence hearing.
Montgomery, 52, was said to die by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana on Tuesday, Jan. 12.
Prosecutors have filed a petition to appeal the judge’s decision.
Montgomery’s lawyers, family and supporters have begged President Donald Trump to read their petition for clemency and make an executive decision to commute her sentence without the possibility of parole.
Montgomery was sentenced to death in 2008 by a Missouri jury for the 2004 murder of a pregnant woman, excision of the fetus and kidnapping it. The baby survived.
“The court has rightly ended the execution of Lisa Montgomery,” her attorney, Kelley Henry, said in a statement. “As the court held,” Mrs. Montgomery made “a strong display” of her current incompetence to be executed. Mrs. Montgomery has brain damage and a serious mental illness that has been exacerbated by the lifelong sexual torture she endured at the hands of caregivers. “
“The Eighth Amendment bans the execution of people like Ms. Montgomery who, because of their severe mental illness or brain damage, do not understand the basis for their executions. Ms. Montgomery is mentally deteriorating and we are looking for an opportunity to prove her incompetence,” Henry added. to it.
Montgomery has also petitioned the US Supreme Court.