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ACLU Files Injunction To Prevent Transfer Of Female Inmate Facing Execution To Indiana

The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking to stop the transfer of a federal death row inmate to Indiana to be executed.

The ACLU filed for a preliminary injunction Monday against U.S. Attorney General William Barr, the federal prison bureau and the wardens of two federal facilities. The filing seeks to alter federal death row inmate Lisa Montgomery’s newly imposed detention conditions in Texas and prevent federal officials from transferring her to Indiana to be executed next month.

The filing alleges that as soon as the government scheduled Montgomery’s execution date last month, she was deprived of all belongings including books, legal papers, and photographs of her children. Prison guards are preventing her from wearing a bra, panties or socks and are forcing her to wear a loose gown with Velcro straps. They have also moved her to an isolated cell where the lights are kept on continuously, even at night.

“Our lawsuit challenges all of those conditions as degrading and violating of the 8th Amendment. They amount to torture for Mrs. Montgomery,” Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU’s capital punishment project, said Tuesday. 

The lawsuit also challenges plans to transfer Montgomery to the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute where she is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 8.

Montgomery was sentenced to death in 2007 by a Kansas City federal jury for murdering a pregnant woman and removing and kidnapping her unborn child.

READ MORE: Woman On U.S. Death Row Seeks Delay As Attorneys Contract COVID-19

Also Monday, Montgomery’s main attorneys filed a separate lawsuit against the justice department and Attorney General Barr over a clemency deadline.

The attorneys say they contracted COVID-19 during a trip to visit Montgomery and were unable to complete her application for clemency before a midnight deadline. Instead, they filed a placeholder application appealing directly to President Donald Trump to allow time for the lawyers to recover before they make their case.

The inmate’s attorneys contend she is severely mentally ill and should not be executed. They are asking Trump to commute her sentence to life in prison. Her mental health issues stem from severe abuse she suffered at the hands of men throughout her childhood. In its filing Monday, the ACLU pointed out that the Terre Haute prison is an all-male facility. They say moving her there would further traumatize her and reverse her mental health progress.

If Montgomery’s execution goes forward, she would be the first female inmate to be executed by the federal government since 1953. The Trump administration has carried out seven federal executions so far this year. Three more including Montgomery’s are scheduled before the end of the year. One is scheduled for this Thursday.