The United States executed on Wednesday a woman who had murdered a pregnant woman to take her fetus in 2004, The first federal execution of a woman in nearly 70 years, in one of the last acts of Donald Trump’s presidency.
(Read here: Who are the convicts who will die before Trump leaves power?)
“Lisa Montgomery, 52, was executed at the Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary,” in the Midwestern state of Indiana, at 1:31 p.m. (local time), the department said in a statement. of Justice.
Montgomery received a lethal injection “In accordance with the death penalty unanimously recommended by a federal jury and imposed by the U.S. District Court,” Missouri continued, the text continued.
Shortly before, the Supreme Court had rejected the latest appeals filed by the woman’s lawyers, despite the disagreement of her three progressive magistrates.
Lisa Montgomery, 52, was executed at the Terre Haute Federal Prison
(Read also: Alfred Bourgeois: History Behind the Recent Execution in the US.)
According to them, her client suffers from severe mental disorders, as a result of the group assaults and rapes she suffered as a child, and does not understand the meaning of her sentence, a prerequisite for her execution.
A federal judge on Monday had ordered the execution to be suspended at the request of the defense, but the justice ministry appealed the magistrate’s decision and an appeals court overturned the decision on Tuesday.
The United States Supreme Court, before which two different appeals had been filed, he was right in both cases to Trump’s government lawyers. In 2004, Montgomery, unable to have a new child, identified his victim – a dog breeder – on the internet and went to his home in Missouri on the pretext of buying him a terrier.
Instead, he strangled her, opened her uterus, took her baby – who survived – and abandoned the 23-year-old. Trump, a staunch supporter of the death penalty, Ignored a clemency petition filed by Montgomery supporters.
(You may be interested: Who are the convicts who will die before Trump leaves power?)
10 men executed
Since the resumption in July of federal executions in the United States, after a 17-year hiatus, the death penalty has been applied to 10 men. And in addition to Montgomery, the Trump administration plans to execute two African Americans this week: Corey Johnson this Thursday and Dustin Higgs this Friday.
The Donald Trump administration plans to execute two African Americans this week.
But in these cases there is also uncertainty following the decision of a federal court to block their executions. The two sentenced to death recently contracted covid-19 illethal injection could cause illegal suffering, the judges considered.
Former Terre Haute prison guards, meanwhile, wrote to incumbent Secretary of Justice Jeffrey Rosen asking him to postpone these executions “until prison staff are vaccinated against covid-19.”
An execution requires dozens of people to remain in a closed environment, An environment conducive to the spread of viruses. For this reason, states suspend executions for months.
(Recommended: Despite orders of pity, Brandon Bernard was executed in the US.)
The Trump administration has done just the opposite and he has been in favor of proceeding with the executions as quickly as possible before leaving power.
In the final hours of Trump’s presidency, there is a race to execute people who have been on death row for years
“In the last hours of Trump’s presidency, there is a race to execute people who have been on death row for years or even decades. It’s crazy,” the Democratic senator told NPR radio on Monday Dick Durbin, who announced the introduction of a bill to halt federal executions again.
After Democrats regain control of the Senate, it is possible that this text will be adopted after the arrival of the White House of Joe Biden, who opposes the death penalty.
AFP
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