PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "
Attorneys and supporters for Montgomery have argued that she suffers from several mental disorders that emerged from a lifetime of abuse. “Given everything we know about Lisa Montgomery’s mental illness, her lifetime of horrific torture and trauma, and the many people in positions of authority who could have intervened to save her but never did, there can be no principled reason to carry out her execution,” Ms. VerGow said. “The government should stop its relentless efforts to end her life, and President Trump should commute her sentence to life without possibility of release."
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STORY: "Appeals court refuses to halt execution of only woman on death row," by reporter Jeff Mordock, published by The Washington Times on January 1, 2020.
GIST: "A federal appeals court on Friday refused to delay the execution of the only woman on federal death row, reversing a lower court’s decision that halted the execution last week.
In an emergency New Year’s Day ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that a lower court judge should not have postponed the execution of Lisa Montgomery.
U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss last month delayed Montgomery’s execution, which was originally scheduled for Dec. 8, to allow her attorneys time to recover from COVID-19.
After Judge Moss granted the stay, the Justice Department scheduled her execution for Jan. 12. Last week, he ruled the Justice Department acted illegally by setting an execution date while the stay was in order.
But the Court of Appeals said Judge Moss had erred in his ruling and affirmed Montgomery’s execution date as Jan. 12.
Montgomery’s attorney said she would ask the full appellate court to overturn the panel’s decision.
“We will ask the en banc court to reconsider this ruling,” said Meaghan VerGow. “The federal government must be required to follow the law in setting any execution date, as the district court correctly held. Lisa Montgomery should not be executed on Jan. 12.”
Montgomery would be the first woman executed in the United States in almost 70 years. She is set to die by lethal injection at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
In 2004, Montgomery was convicted of murdering Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant. Montgomery cut Stinnett’s unborn child from her womb with a kitchen knife. The child was missing but was later found and survived.
Attorneys and supporters for Montgomery have argued that she suffers from several mental disorders that emerged from a lifetime of abuse.
“Given everything we know about Lisa Montgomery’s mental illness, her lifetime of horrific torture and trauma, and the many people in positions of authority who could have intervened to save her but never did, there can be no principled reason to carry out her execution,” Ms. VerGow said. “The government should stop its relentless efforts to end her life, and President Trump should commute her sentence to life without possibility of release."
The entire story can be read at:
”https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jan/1/lisa-montgomery-execution-appeals-court-refuses-de/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog; -----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD (FOR NOW!): "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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