Federal government to hold first execution of a woman in nearly 70 years

The federal government has set an execution date for convicted murderer Lisa Montgomery, scheduling what will be its first execution of a woman in nearly 70 years. 

Montgomery in 2004 strangled to death Skidmore, Missouri, resident Bobbie Jo Stinnett, then cut open Stinnett's body and removed her unborn baby before fleeing with it. 

Montgomery had allegedly arranged a meet-up with Stinnett over their shared interest in rat terrier breeding. She was arrested the next day, while the baby was safely recovered and returned to Stinnett's widower. 

The Justice Department announced this week that Montgomery "is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on December 8, 2020, at U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute, Indiana." 

She will become the first condemned female to be executed by the federal government since 1953, when Bonnie Heady was executed by gas chamber in Missouri.