The Supreme Court sided with the Tump administration late Tuesday to rule that Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, should be executed.
Why it matters: Montgomery, 52, will become the first female federal inmate to be put to death in 67 years.
Of interest: A federal judge granted Montgomery a stay on Tuesday, hours before she was due to die by lethal injection at a federal prison complex in Indiana.
- Montgomery’s lawyers had argued that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of people like Montgomery who “do not understand the basis for their executions because of their severe mental illness or brain damage.”
Details: The Supreme Court voted 6-3 for the ruling. The three liberal judges were of the opinion.
The big picture: Federal executions had stalled for 16 years until the Trump administration resumed the federal death penalty last July, Axios’ Oriana Gonzalez notes.
- Montgomery was one of three inmates the Justice Department would have executed this week, a week before the inauguration of President-elect Biden, who is against the federal death penalty.
Background: Montgomery was convicted in 2004 of the murder of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, cut her baby from her stomach and abducted the child who survived the attack.
Go deeper: Trump’s final word on executions
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