Washington – A federal court of appeals has paved the way for the only woman in federal death row to be executed before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
The ruling, handed down Friday by a three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals court for the District of Columbia Circuit, concluded that a lower court judge made a mistake when he left Lisa’s execution date Montgomery in an order last week.
U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss had ruled The Justice Department was illegally rescheduled Montgomery’s execution and he vacated an order from the director of the Bureau of Prisons that scheduled his death for January 12.
Montgomery was scheduled to be killed at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, in December, but Moss delayed execution after his lawyers contracted coronavirus to visit his client and asked him to extend the deadline to file a petition. of clemency.
Moss concluded that, under his command, the Prisons Office could not even reschedule Montgomery’s execution until at least January 1st. But the appeals group disagreed.
Montgomery’s attorney Meaghan VerGow said his legal team would ask the full appeals court to review the case and said Montgomery should not be executed on Jan. 12.
Montgomery was convicted of the murder of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the northwestern city of Skidmore. knife, authorities said. Montgomery took the boy with her and tried to pass the girl off as her own, prosecutors said.
AP / Nodaway-Holt High School
Montgomery’s lawyers have argued that his client suffers from serious mental illness. Biden opposes the death penalty and his spokesman, TJ Ducklo, has said he would work to end its use. But Biden has not said whether he will stop federal executions after taking office January 20th.