Judge delays execution of only woman on US death row

A federal judge has delayed the execution of the only woman on federal death row for the second time, after ruling that it had been unlawfully rescheduled by the Justice Department.

U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss vacated an order from the director of the Bureau of Prisons that had set Lisa Montgomery´s execution date for January 12. 

Montgomery, now 52, was convicted in 2007 of kidnapping and strangling Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and cutting her child from her womb.

The ruling means the Trump administration may have to schedule the execution for a date after president-elect Joe Biden takes office.

Montgomery had previously been scheduled to be put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, this month, but Moss delayed the execution after her attorneys contracted coronavirus visiting their client and asked him to extend the amount of time to file a clemency petition.

Moss prohibited the Bureau of Prisons from carrying out Montgomery´s execution before the end of the year and officials rescheduled her execution date for January 12. 

But Moss ruled on Wednesday that the agency was also prohibited from rescheduling the date while a stay was in place.

‘The Court, accordingly, concludes that the Director´s order setting a new execution date while the Court´s stay was in effect was `not in accordance with law,´’ Moss wrote.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under the order, the Bureau of Prisons cannot reschedule Montgomery´s execution until at least January 1.

Generally, under Justice Department guidelines, a death-row inmate must be notified at least 20 days before the execution. 

Because of the judge’s order, if the Justice Department chooses to reschedule the date in January, it could mean that the execution would be scheduled after Biden´s inauguration on January 20.

A spokesperson for Biden has told The Associated Press the president-elect ‘opposes the death penalty now and in the future’ and would work as president to end its use while he is in office. But Biden’s representatives have not said whether executions would be paused immediately once Biden takes office.  

Montgomery was found guilty of federal kidnapping resulting in death and sentenced to death in 2007 for the slaying of mother-to-be Stinnett. 

Planning the heinous crime for months, she met her victim online under the pretense that she was interested in buying a puppy from her.

Montgomery posed as ‘Darlene Fischer’ and started chatting with Stinnett in the chatroom called ‘Ratter Chatter.’

She told her victim she was pregnant and the two women chatted in the room and over email about their pregnancies.

Stinnett was eight months’ pregnant while Montgomery was faking her pregnancy, telling her victim as well as her family and friends that she was full term.

On December 16, 2004, the two women arranged to meet at Stinnett’s home over the purchase of the puppy, a rat terrier.

Once inside, Montgomery strangled Stinnett with a neon pink rope until she lost consciousness. 

When Montgomery sliced her stomach open with a knife, Stinnett regained consciousness and a struggled ensued. 

Montgomery then strangled the pregnant woman again, killing her.     

She then cut the baby girl from her victim’s womb and made off with the premature child, attempting to pass off the girl as her own.

Stinnett’s mother discovered her daughter’s butchered body hours later.

Montgomery was arrested by police the following day at her farmhouse. The baby, who miraculously survived the ordeal, was returned to her father Zeb Stinnett. 

In 2007, a US District Court for the Western District of Missouri sentenced Montgomery to death for the crimes.

During her trial, Montgomery’s defense argued the Kansas woman suffered from a delusional belief that she was pregnant, and said she may have been unable to differentiate between right and wrong when she killed Stinnett.

The defense team portrayed her as a victim of severe mental illness whose delusion of being pregnant was being threatened, causing her to enter a dreamlike state when the killing took place.

They also argued that she had post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by mental, physical and sexual abuse in her childhood.

But prosecutors said Montgomery carefully planned the fatal meeting at Stinnett’s home in Skidmore, Missouri, pretending she wanted to purchase a rat terrier puppy.

They said Montgomery tried to pass off Stinnett’s baby as her own, telling her husband she had gone into labor while on a shopping trip and having him pick her up near a Topeka health centre where she said she gave birth.

Montgomery had undergone a tubal ligation in 1990 after the birth of her fourth child.

But soon after, she began falsely reporting a series of pregnancies. In 2004, she claimed to be due in mid-December.

Her husband, Carl Boman, had become suspicious of her latest pregnancy claim and threatened to use it against her as he sought custody of two of the couple’s four children. A custody hearing had been set for January 2005.

Montgomery’s mother and sister also had been telling Montgomery’s husband and his parents that it was impossible for her to carry a child.

Prosecutors said Montgomery removed the baby from Stinnett´s body, took the child with her, and attempted to pass the girl off as her own. 

Montgomery´s legal team has argued that their client suffers from serious mental illnesses.

‘Given the severity of Mrs. Montgomery´s mental illness, the sexual and physical torture she endured throughout her life, and the connection between her trauma and the facts of her crime, we appeal to President Trump to grant her mercy, and commute her sentence to life imprisonment,’ one of Montgomery´s lawyers, Sandra Babcock, said in a statement.

Two other federal inmates are scheduled to be executed in January but have tested positive for coronavirus and their attorneys are also seeking delays to their executions.