THE PRESS OF LARA | Agencies.- A federal judge from the state of Indiana (USA) suspended on the night of this January 11 the execution order of Lisa Montgomery, which was scheduled for January 12, reports Reuters.
The magistrate James Patrick Hanlon He enforced the blocking of the order on the grounds of Montgomery’s mental health that did not justify the death penalty. With this decision, the court is allowed to hold a hearing for “determine competition “ of the sentenced “to be executed,” as detailed in the motion for postponement signed by Hanlon. The time and date of the procedure are pending to be set.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit confirmed the validity of the document, forcing any new date to be postponed until after President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, which will take place on 20 January, unless the country’s Supreme Court intervened.
Montgomery’s attorney, Kelley Henry, applauded Judge Hanlon’s decision and noted that they are looking for a way to demonstrate the deterioration and mental “incompetence” of your client. Last week, his legal team petitioned President Donald Trump for clemency, alleging Montgomery’s mental disorders, the product of a childhood filled with torture and abuse. They called for the replacement of capital punishment by life imprisonment.
Her defense insists that, although the incarcerated woman admits her guilt, she deserves clemency for having suffered a serious mental illness for a long time, exacerbated by the fact that her stepfather, along with his friends, raped her when she was around 11 years old.
Execution: obstacles and delays
Lisa Montgomery, the only woman currently on “death row” for federal crimes in the US, strangled 23-year-old pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett in 2004, in the city of Skidmore (Missouri), to open her belly with a knife and take her baby. The woman admitted guilt and was sentenced to death in 2007.
His execution was scheduled for December 8, 2020, but his two lawyers asked to stay. The director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Michael Carvajal, set the new date for January 12, but in late December Judge Randolph Moss alleged that the rescheduling was illegal and concluded that, under his order, the Bureau of Prisons did not he could reschedule the execution until at least January 1.
The US Court of Appeals annulled on the first day of 2021 that suspension of execution arguing that the lawyer had made a mistake in his order.
Lisa Montgomery is the first woman to be sentenced to death in nearly six decades in the US, but President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to abolish the federal death penalty, making it likely that the execution will be prevented.
Information source: RT.
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