Execution of Lisa Montgomery delayed
By 
Very tentative good news:
A federal judge said the Justice Department unlawfully rescheduled the execution of the only woman on federal death row, potentially setting up the Trump administration to schedule the execution after president-elect Joe Biden takes office.
U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss also vacated an order from the director of the Bureau of Prisons that had set Lisa Montgomery’s execution date for Jan. 12. Montgomery had previously been scheduled to be put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, this month, but Moss delayed the execution after her attorneys contracted coronavirus visiting their client and asked him to extend the amount of time to file a clemency petition.
Moss prohibited the Bureau of Prisons from carrying out Lisa Montgomery’s execution before the end of the year and officials rescheduled her execution date for Jan. 12. But Moss ruled on Wednesday that the agency was also prohibited from rescheduling the date while a stay was in place.
Given the extraordinarily bloodthirsty nature of both the president and the median vote of the Supreme Court, the smart money is still on this execution happening. But if she can be spared until January 20th Biden should commute her sentence to life in prison immediately. To execute someone who endured the kind of abuse Montgomery did for most of her childhood would be appalling even leaving aside Trump’s pardoning of war criminals.