Lisa Montgomery executed in a US federal prison complex

By Vatican News staff writer

Lisa Montgomery was executed on Wednesday at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The 52-year old woman from Kansas was pronounced dead at 1.31 am after receiving a lethal injection. The execution marks the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government has put to death a female inmate.
 

Montgomery was the 11th prisoner executed at the facility since July when President Donald Trump resumed federal executions following 17 years without one. It was carried out after hours of legal wrangling before the Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution to move forward.

Montgomery was the first of the final three federal inmates scheduled to die before next week’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

An appeals court granted Montgomery a stay of execution Tuesday, shortly after another appeals court lifted an Indiana judge’s ruling that found she was likely mentally ill and couldn’t comprehend she would be put to death. But both appeals were lifted, allowing the execution to go forward.

As the only woman on federal death row, Montgomery had been held in a prison in Texas and was brought to Terre Haute on Monday night. According to her lawyers, Montgomery suffered from depression, borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In a separate ruling Tuesday, which the government can still seek to overturn, another federal judge halted the scheduled executions later this week of Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs.