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Death Row Inmate’s Execution Was Unlawfully Rescheduled, Judge Says

Lisa Montgomery’s execution date will be delayed for the second time in as many months after a judge ruled that officials ignored a stay put in place until the end of the year.

A judge ruled that the only woman on death row had her execution wrongly rescheduled. “Setting a new execution date while the Court’s stay was in effect was ‘not in accordance with law,’” U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss wrote. Lisa Montgomery was set to be executed on January 12, 2021 for brutally killing a woman who was 8 months pregnant, cutting the woman’s child from her body and pretending the child was her own. Her lawyers argue she’s severely mentally ill and should not be put to death.

Montgomery’s execution was originally scheduled to take place in December, but it was rescheduled after her lawyers got coronavirus. A judge ruled on Wednesday that a new date for Montgomery’s execution should not have been set until January 1st. Now officials will have to wait until the new year to schedule her execution. They’ll also have to give her 20 days notice, meaning she likely won’t be executed until President-elect Biden is in office. Two other death row inmates are scheduled to be executed in January but both have contracted coronavirus in recent days and their lawyers have asked for their dates to be delayed.