Appeals Court Reinstates Execution Date For The Only Woman On Federal Death Row

Three DC Circuit Court of Appeals judges reversed a lower court’s decision that vacated Lisa Montgomery’s execution date, paving the way for her to be put to death later this month.

Montgomery was initially scheduled to die on December 8, and that date was pushed back when her lawyers contracted COVID-19. Her execution was rescheduled to January 12 by the Federal Bureau of Prisons director back in November. According to CNN, Friday’s ruling said he was acting under the law, which allowed him to reschedule the execution since the original date had not passed.

Meaghan VerGow, Montgomery’s attorney, released a statement disagreeing with the decision. She intends to file a petition asking the judges to reconsider their decision. Montgomery’s legal team has maintained that she has a severe mental illness.

“Given everything we know about Lisa Montgomery‘s mental illness, her lifetime of horrific torture and trauma, and the many people in positions of authority who could have intervened to save her but never did, there can be no principled reason to carry out her execution,” VerGow said in her statement. “The government should stop its relentless efforts to end her life.”

Montgomery was convicted of murdering a pregnant Missouri woman in 2004, then cutting out and kidnapping the woman’s baby. The baby girl survived.

She will be the first female executed in more than 60 years. The last woman to be put to death was Bonnie Brown Heady in 1953.