A federal appeals court on Friday paved the way for the execution of the only woman on the federal death row later this month.
According to The Associated Press, the group of three U.S. District Court of Appeals judges for the District of Columbia ruled that a lower court judge improperly abandoned Lisa Montgomery’s execution date last week.
U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss had delayed execution originally scheduled for December at Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., after Montgomery’s attorneys hired COVID-19 while visiting his client.
Moss banned the Prisons Office from carrying out the execution before the end of the year and officials rescheduled it for January 12th. But Moss ruled that the agency was also prohibited from rescheduling the date while there was a stay, the AP reported. at the time.
Friday’s appellate court, however, disagreed with the ruling, paving the way for Montgomery’s execution a few days before the president-elect Joe Biden
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The Trump administration resumed federal executions this year after a 17-year hiatus in practice, running more prisoners by 2020 that all states that still serve the death penalty combined, according to a recent report from the Death Penalty Information Center.
Montgomery’s lawyers have tried to prevent his execution, citing serious mental illness, and Biden has repeatedly reiterated his opposition to the death penalty.
Although Biden has not indicated whether he will stop federal executions when he takes office, a spokesman, TJ Ducklo, said the former vice president would aim to end the practice, the AP reported.
Montgomery was convicted in 2007 of the 2004 strangulation of a woman who was eight months pregnant at the time. Montgomery pulled the unborn child, who survived, from Bobbie Jo Stinnet’s womb after the murder.
Prosecutors said Montgomery then he took the girl away and tried to leave her as his own.