US government executes first woman on death row in nearly 70 years

The US Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, cleared the way for her execution after overturning a stay by the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals

The US government executed convicted murderer Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court cleared the last hurdle by overturning a stay. Montgomery was the first female prisoner to be executed in by the US government since 1953.

Challenges were fought across multiple federal courts on whether to allow the execution of Montgomery, 52, who was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate in the Justice Department’s execution chamber at its prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The US Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, cleared the way for her execution after