The Supreme Court on Tuesday shut down a last-minute attempt to halt one of the last executions to take place during the Trump administration.
The court, in an unsigned order, denied an application for stay of the death sentence that had been presented to Chief Justice John Roberts. The woman set to be executed, Lisa Montgomery, will likely face her sentence tonight, as originally scheduled. The court is set to weigh in on several other stays before Tuesday ends.
The decision comes a day after a lower court judge issued a stay for Montgomery’s execution on the grounds that her “mental competence” needed to be evaluated. More than 1,000 anti-death penalty advocates lobbied against her sentence, arguing that her history of mental illness, being abused, and her experience being sexually trafficked as a child should be taken into account.
The Justice Department appealed the stay on the execution on Tuesday, arguing the court should “immediately set aside this unwarranted obstacle to carrying out a lawful death sentence.”
Montgomery had previously been found guilty of strangling a pregnant woman from Missouri in 2004 and claiming her unborn baby as her own. She is the first woman in more than six decades to face federal execution. She is set to die by lethal injection.
Montgomery secured a delay in her sentence after her attorneys tested positive for the coronavirus in November. At the time, her attorneys argued that because she has “several mental disabilities that frequently cause her to lose touch with reality … it is vital that counsel be able to meet with Mrs. Montgomery in person to evaluate her mental status.”
A federal judge on Tuesday halted the final two executions scheduled to take place during the Trump administration after the two inmates tested positive for the coronavirus.
