TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Attorneys for Female Death Row Inmate Diagnosed with COVID, Seek Delay in Execution

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Nov 18, 2020

Federal public defenders representing the first female inmate set to be executed by the U.S. government in almost 70 years have fallen sick with COVID-19 following a visit to see her in federal prison, the Associated Press reports. Lisa Montgomery is set to be put to death on Dec. 8 for murdering a Missouri woman in 2004 and kidnapping her unborn child. The two attorneys were pursuing a petition for clemency and visited Montgomery at a federal medical center in Texas. They are now asking for an injunction postponing the execution until a thorough clemency appeal can be prepared. Observers expect the petition to focus on fetal brain damage Montgomery experienced and a horrifying childhood that involved incest, gang rape, child sex trafficking, physical abuse and neglect. Meanwhile, the ACLU has filed an injunction to end what it says is “torturous” conditions of Montgomery's imprisonment, The Hill reports. She is being held in a cold cell where male guards watch her at all times, even when she uses the bathroom, the group says.

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