United States: a woman executed in the United States where death sentences are linked
In Indiana, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, January 13, opponents of the death penalty braved the cold to protest against the execution of Lisa Montgmomery, scheduled for the night after the failure of all remedies attempted by her lawyers.
REUTERS - BRYAN WOOLSTON
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The United States proceeded on Wednesday, January 13, in the state of Indiana, to the first federal execution of a woman in nearly 70 years, announced the US Department of Justice.
"Lisa Montgomery, 52, was executed at the Terre-Haute federal penitentiary," he said in a statement.
The capital executions have been linked for six months.
Publicity
Read more
Lisa Montgomery, 52, received a lethal injection overnight after the United States Supreme Court gave the green light to the first federal execution of a woman in nearly 70 years.
The High Court refused at midnight the final appeals filed by the lawyers of the condemned.
In 2004, she had killed an eight-month pregnant woman in order to steal her fetus, which he survived.
According to her defenders, Lisa Montgomery suffered from severe mental disorders, consequences of violence and gang rape suffered in her childhood.
According to them, she did not understand the meaning of her sentence, an essential condition for carrying out an execution.
Two capital executions suspended due to Covid-19
Despite the decline in the death penalty in the United States and around the world, the Trump administration resumed in July, after a 17-year hiatus, with federal executions and has since chained them at an unprecedented rate, underlines Agence France hurry.
Ten Americans have received lethal injections in Terre-Haute since the summer and the Trump administration plans, in addition to Ms. Montgomery, to execute two black men this week: Corey Johnson on Thursday and Dustin Higgs on Friday.
But both having been infected with Covid-19, a federal court has blocked these executions on the grounds that the lethal injection risks causing them illegal suffering, the judges said.
Former prison guards have for their part asked the Ministry of Justice to postpone these executions "until prison staff are vaccinated against Covid-19".
Because an execution mobilizes dozens of people in a closed environment, conducive to the spread of the virus ... For this reason, the American states, including the very repressive Texas, have suspended the executions for months.
A "
mad race
" for executions
On the contrary, the administration of Donald Trump has shown its determination to carry out as many executions as possible, before leaving power.
“In the final hours of the Trump presidency, there is a mad rush to execute people who have been on death row for years if not decades.
This is insane, ”denounced Democratic Senator Dick Durbin on NPR, announcing the introduction of a law aimed at putting an end to federal executions.
The Democrats having regained control of the Senate, it is possible that it will be adopted once Joe Biden has taken office, especially as the future President of the United States has declared himself against the death penalty.
Joe Bide, who will be invested on January 20, has promised to work with Congress to ban it at the federal level.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
United States
Justice
Human rights