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Execution date for the only woman on federal death row is reinstated

By sdlocal / January 2, 2021

The order says the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Michael Carvajal, was acting under the “governing regulation,” which allowed him to reschedule the execution because the original execution date had not passed.

Montgomery’s execution had been scheduled for December 8, but a judge postponed it after her attorneys said they were diagnosed with Covid-19 after flying from Texas to visit with Montgomery at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. On November 23, Carvajal rescheduled Montgomery’s execution for January 12 and because he set it at that date, the order said he was acting under the law, clearing the way for her execution later this month.

Montgomery’s attorney, Meaghan VerGow, said in a statement that she disagrees with the judges and is going to file a petition for them to reconsider their decision. The judges gave VerGow until Saturday to file.

“The federal government must be required to follow the law in setting any execution date, as the district court correctly held … 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. “The government should stop its relentless efforts to end her life.”

VerGow has asked for President Donald Trump to commute Montgomery’s sentence to life without the possibility of parole.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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