USA: Lisa Montgomery, 43, first female federal prisoner to be executed in 70 years

Death row inmate, Lisa Montgomery, 43, will become first female federal prisoner to be executed in 70 years after a US appeals court has lifted a stay of execution on the only woman awaiting a federal death penalty.

Lisa Montgomery, choked her victim, an 8 month pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, with a rope before using a carving knife to take out a baby girl out of her womb in 2004.

The baby, Victoria Jo Stinnett, survived the attack and is now 16 years old.

Police arrested Montgomery the next day at her farmhouse and the baby, who miraculously survived, was returned to her father Zeb Stinnett.

After initially denying the crime, Montgomery told investigators she had taken a knife, rope and umbilical cord clamp with her to Stinnett's home.

In December 2004, Montgomery drove from Kansas to the home of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, in Missouri, purportedly to purchase a puppy, according to a Department of Justice press release.

"Once inside the residence, Montgomery attacked and strangled Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant until the victim lost consciousness," it says.

"Using a kitchen knife, Montgomery then cut into Stinnett's abdomen, causing her to regain consciousness. A struggle ensued, and Montgomery strangled Stinnett to death. Montgomery then removed the baby from Stinnett's body, took the baby with her, and attempted to pass it off as her own."

In 2007, a jury found Montgomery guilty of federal kidnapping resulting in death, and unanimously recommended a death sentence.
The murder happened in 2004 and Montgomery was sentenced to death in 2007. 

If the execution goes ahead, she will be the first female federal inmate to be put to death in almost 70 years.

Montgomery's execution date was originally set for last month but a stay was put in place after her attorneys contracted Covid-19.

It was then rescheduled for 12 January by the Justice Department. But Montgomery's lawyers argued that the date could not be set while a stay was in place.

A court sided with her attorneys, stopping an order from the director of the Bureau of Prisons scheduling her death.

But on Friday, a panel of judges concluded that the director had acted under the law, allowing the execution to take place.

The last woman to be executed by the US government was Bonnie Heady, who died in a gas chamber in Missouri in 1953, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

She was involved in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of 6-year-old Bobby Greenlease in October 1953. The boy ended up being buried in Heady's back yard.

Federal executions had been on pause for 17 years before Preisdent Donald Trump ordered them to resume earlier last year.

If the remaining executions go ahead,  Trump will have overseen the most executions by a US president in more than a century.

Montgomery's execution date is just days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

Joe Biden, who for decades was a fierce supporter of the death penalty as a Delaware senator, has now changed his stance and said he will seek to end federal executions once he takes office according to foreign media reports.