The suspension order was to give her lawyers time to recover from COVID-19.
A federal judge has put the planned execution of the only woman on federal death row on hold amid a battle for a stay of execution.
Lisa Montgomery, 52, was convicted in December 2004 of the murder of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the town of Skidmore in northwestern Missouri, according to the United States Department of Justice. Montgomery strangled Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, then used a kitchen knife to cut the girl out of the womb.
Montgomery, who kidnapped the baby and tried to pass the girl on as her own, was convicted of federal kidnapping to death in October 2007 and sentenced to execution.
According to court documents, Montgomery’s execution date was initially scheduled for December 8, 2020.
But in November, U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss issued a stay of execution order to allow Montgomery’s lawyers to recover from COVID-19 and prepare a petition for Montgomery to receive administrative leniency from President Donald Trump. .
After the postponement, the Justice Department has rescheduled Montgomery’s execution to January 12, 2021. She is currently being held in a federal prison in Texas, but was scheduled to be put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute , Indiana. .
Moss ruled Thursday that the Bureau of Prisons has acted illegally in resetting Montgomery’s execution date and that a new execution date may not be scheduled as long as the reprieve warrant remains in effect.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice, which oversees the Bureau of Prisons, did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Montgomery’s lawyers agreed with Moss’s statement.
“The court decision requires the government to follow the law by not setting a date of execution for Lisa Montgomery while the execution is delayed,” Sandra Babock, an attorney for Montgomery, said in a statement.
Montgomery’s attorneys have argued that their client is suffering from serious mental illness.
“[Montgomery] suffers from dissociative disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder and other serious mental illness aggravated by the extreme physical, emotional and sexual abuse she endured from early childhood, ”said Babcock.
Montgomery had a deadline for filing a “petition for sentence commutation” on November 15, but in early November, her two attorneys fell ill with COVID-19 and were unable to work on Montgomery’s behalf.
The lawyers then filed a motion to suspend the planned execution, arguing that Montgomery would be denied access to the critical “fail-safe” in the criminal justice system by not being given a meaningful opportunity to seek leniency, court said. documents.
Moss granted the postponement on Nov. 19 – Thursday’s ruling prohibits a new execution date to be rescheduled as long as the stay is in effect until Jan. 1.
“The court accordingly concludes that the director’s order setting a new execution date while the court’s suspension was in effect was not in accordance with the law,” Moss wrote.