Judge Blocks Execution of Woman Who Strangled Pregnant Victim, Cut Baby from Womb
A federal judge is temporarily blocking the federal government’s plan to execute the first female death row inmate in almost six decades after her attorneys contracted COVID-19 visiting her in prison.
The order, handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington, prohibits the federal Bureau of Prisons from carrying out Lisa Montgomery’s execution before the end of the year.
She was scheduled to be put to death on Dec. 8 at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Montgomery’s attorneys had sought to delay the execution in order to file a clemency petition on her behalf.
The lawyers, Kelley Henry and Amy Harwell, who are based in Nashville, Tennessee, tested positive for COVID-19 after they flew to visit her at a Texas prison last month.
Montgomery’s lawyers have argued that their client suffers from serious mental illnesses and can’t assist in filing her own clemency petition.
Both Henry and Harwell are “functionally incapacitated” due to the virus and thus unable to help file a clemency petition, attorney Sandra Babcock said.
Another attorney couldn’t be assigned to file one because Montgomery’s mental state has deteriorated and she doesn’t trust many lawyers, but Henry and Harwell have worked with her for years and have gained her trust, Babcock argued.
In his ruling, Moss said that if the execution moves forward as scheduled, Montgomery would “lose her statutory right to meaningful representation by counsel in the clemency process.”
He said the lawyers should file a clemency petition by Dec. 24 or bring on other lawyers to assist.
Babcock hailed the ruling as “a meaningful opportunity to prepare and present a clemency application after her attorneys recover from COVID.”
“Mrs. Montgomery’s case presents compelling grounds for clemency, including her history as a victim of gang rape, incest, and child sex trafficking, as well as her severe mental illness. She will now have the opportunity to present this evidence to the President with a request that he commute her sentence to life imprisonment,” she said.
Montgomery was convicted of killing 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore in December 2004, using a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then using a kitchen knife to cut the baby girl from her womb, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Montgomery took the child with her and attempted to pass her off as her own.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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