The Supreme Court early Wednesday cleared the way for the federal execution of Lisa Montgomery — the only woman on federal death row in the United States.
In a matter of hours, the high court vacated two stays of execution to allow federal Bureau of Prisons to put Montgomery to death.
She will be the first federally executed woman in the US since 1953.
The Supreme Court’s decision came a day after a federal judge in Indiana granted Montgomery a stay of execution on mental-health grounds.
Montgomery, the so -called “womb raider,” was convicted in 2007 of killing 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore.
She used a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then cut the baby girl from the womb with a kitchen knife, authorities said.
Montgomery’s lawyers have argued she is mentally ill and can’t comprehend she would be put to death.
With Post wires
