Kansas City, Mo. ? A Kansas woman who killed an expectant Missouri mother and cut the baby from her womb lost an appeal of her conviction.

A federal appeals court panel on Tuesday upheld Lisa Montgomery’s conviction in the 2004 slaying of Bobbie Jo Stinnett of Skidmore, and the kidnapping of Stinnett’s unborn child on Dec. 16, 2004.

After an intense search, authorities recovered the baby in Melvern, Kan., where Montgomery was claiming the girl was her newborn daughter.

Montgomery was sentenced to death in 2008. In her appeal, Montgomery’s lawyers argued that she had not been properly charged and that the trial judge improperly excluded some of the defense’s scientific evidence.

The Kansas City Star reports that Montgomery’s lawyer intends to appeal Tuesday’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.