MISSION, Kan. (AP) — A judge has granted a stay in what was slated to be the U.S. government’s first execution of a female inmate in more than 67 years. Lisa Montgomery killed 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in December 2004, cut the baby from her womb and then passed off the newborn as her own.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Judge Patrick Hanlon granted the stay late Monday. Her execution was scheduled for Tuesday at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, just eight days before the inauguration of Joe Biden — an opponent of the federal death penalty.
Montgomery’s lawyers have argued that sexual abuse during Montgomery’s childhood led to mental illness.
