Woman to be executed

Washington: A federal appeals court has cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row in the United States to be executed before Presidentelect Joe Biden takes office.

The ruling, handed down on Friday by a threejudge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, concluded a lower court judge erred when he vacated Lisa Montgomery’s execution date in an order last week.

Montgomery was convicted of killing 23yearold Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the Missouri town of Skidmore in December 2004.

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.

Montgomery took the child with her and attempted to pass the girl off as her own.