Judge halts federal execution after lawyers get virus

WASHINGTON — A federal judge is temporarily blocking the federal government’s plan to execute the first female death row inmate in almost six decades after her attorneys contracted the coronavirus visiting her in prison.

The order, handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington, prohibits the federal Bureau of Prisons from carrying out Lisa Montgomery’s execution before the end of the year. She was scheduled to be put to death on Dec. 8 at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Montgomery’s attorneys had sought to delay the execution in order to file a clemency petition on her behalf. The lawyers, Kelley Henry and Amy Harwell, who are based in Nashville tested positive for COVID-19 after they flew to visit her at a Texas prison last month.

Both Henry and Harwell have serious symptoms from the virus and are “functionally incapacitated” and thus unable to help file a clemency petition, Babcock said. Another attorney couldn’t be assigned to file one because Montgomery’s mental status has deteriorated since the Justice Department scheduled her execution last month and she doesn’t trust many lawyers, Babcock argued.

In his ruling, Moss said if the execution moves forward as scheduled, Montgomery would “lose her statutory right to meaningful representation by counsel in the clemency process.” He said the lawyers should file a clemency petition by Dec. 24 or bring on other lawyers to assist.