TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Jan 4, 2021

A federal judge who ruled several weeks ago that the U.S. Justice Department unlawfully rescheduled the execution of the only woman on death row has been reversed by a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, National Public Radio reports. The appeals court decision means that the execution — rescheduled from Dec. 8, 2020, to Jan. 12 after Lisa Montgomery’s attorneys tested positive for COVID-19 — can take place next week. Previously, U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss had said the department could not reset the execution date while a stay in the case was in place, the Associated Press reports. Montgomery’s attorneys continue to push for commutation of her sentence to life in prison based on her mental state and the sexual and physical torture she endured earlier in life.