A federal judge has granted a stay of execution pending a competency hearing to Lisa Montgomery, who was scheduled to be put to death on Jan. 12 for murdering a pregnant woman and cutting the baby out of her womb. Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, in 2004 strangled Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant at the time, before cutting out the baby, which survived. Stinnett succumbed to her wounds. Judge James Hanlon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana wrote in the Jan. 11 order (pdf), “Ms. Montgomery’s motion to stay execution is GRANTED to allow the Court to conduct a hearing to determine Ms. Montgomery’s competence to be executed.” Hanlon noted that Montgomery’s guilty verdict and sentencing were upheld on both appeal and during post-proceeding relief hearings, and that the matter considered in the petition for a stay of execution …