The stay order was to give his lawyers time to recover from COVID-19.
A federal judge has suspended the planned execution of the only woman in the federal death row amid a battle over the suspension of the execution.
Lisa Montgomery, 52, was convicted of the murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, in the northwestern city of Skidmore, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Montgomery strangled Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then used a kitchen knife to cut the girl from the womb.
Montgomery, who abducted the baby and tried to leave her as her own, was convicted of federal abduction that resulted in her death in October 2007 and was sentenced to execution.
Montgomery’s execution date was initially scheduled for December 8, 2020, according to court documents.
But in November, U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss granted a restraining order to allow Montgomery’s lawyers to recover from COVID-19 and prepare a petition for Montgomery to receive executive clemency from the President Donald Trump.
After the stay was granted, the Justice Department rescheduled Montgomery’s execution for January 12, 2021. She is currently being held in a Texas federal prison, but was scheduled to be killed at the Federal Correctional Complex in Texas. Terre Haute, Indiana.
Moss ruled Thursday that the Prisons Office acted illegally in resetting Montgomery’s execution date and that a new execution date cannot be scheduled as long as the order to suspend execution is maintained.
A Justice Department spokesman, who oversees the Prisons Office, did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Montgomery’s attorneys agreed with Moss’s sentence.
“The district court’s decision requires the government to abide by the law by not setting an execution date for Lisa Montgomery while there is a suspension of execution,” Montgomery’s attorney Sandra Babock said in a statement.
Montgomery’s lawyers have argued that his client suffers from serious mental illness.
“[Montgomery] he suffers from a dissociative disorder, a complex post-traumatic stress disorder and other serious mental illnesses exacerbated by the extreme physical, emotional and sexual abuse he suffered from early childhood, ”said Babcock.
Montgomery had a deadline to file a “sentence commutation petition” on Nov. 15, but in early November his two attorneys fell ill with COVID-19 and were unable to work on Montgomery’s behalf.
Lawyers filed a motion to suspend the planned execution, arguing that Montgomery would be denied access to critical “failure protection” in the criminal justice system because he was not given the significant opportunity to apply. clemency, according to court documents.
Moss granted the stay on Nov. 19: Thursday’s ruling prohibits rescheduling a new execution date while the stay is in effect until Jan. 1.
Accordingly, the Court concludes that the director’s order setting a new execution date while the Court’s stay was in force “was not in accordance with the law,” Moss wrote.