#Appeals court vacates order delaying execution of Lisa Montgomery

A federal appeals court has cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed in the final days of the Trump administration.

In a ruling Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia vacated a stay of execution that had been granted last week to Lisa Montgomery.

The so-called “womb raider” is now again facing the death penalty for her 2007 conviction for strangling a pregnant woman to death in Missouri, and then cutting her unborn baby from her womb.

Montgomery is scheduled to be put to death on Jan. 12 — though her lawyers said they will seek a full appeals court review.

Montgomery will be the first woman executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years.

She had originally been scheduled to die by lethal injection on Dec. 8 at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

But in November a federal judge temporarily blocked Montgomery’s execution after her lawyers contracted COVID-19 while visiting her in a federal lockup.

Last week, the same judge issued an order staying Montgomery’s rescheduled execution date. The panel ruled Friday that U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss erred in his doing so.

With Post wires