Woman Set to be Executed Asks President Trump to Spare her Life

Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, is asking President Trump to commute her sentence to life without the possibility of parole. Montgomery is scheduled to be executed on January 12 during Trump's final week in office. In a clemency petition filed on December 24, Montgomery's lawyers urged Trump to spare her life, citing her severe mental illness and the extreme sexual and physical abuse she experienced as a child and teen. Montgomery's lawyers say she was psychotic at the time of the crime.

Montgomery was sentenced for the 2004 murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett. Montgomery strangled Stinnett, who was pregnant, and cut out her 8-month-old fetus. She pretended the baby girl was hers before her arrest. The Missouri Catholic bishops previously asked President Trump to commute her sentence when it was scheduled in early December.