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Dustin Higgs, the last prisoner executed during the Trump administration and the 13th in the space of six months, was executed by the U.S. government.
Although some justices disagreed, the Supreme Court declined to stop the execution, noting that it was 17 years since a federal execution had been carried out before the first of the 13.
Justice Sonya Sotomayor referred to it as an “unprecedented rush,” saying that “after waiting almost two decades to resume federal executions, the Government should have proceeded with some measure of restraint to ensure it did so lawfully.”
Higgs killed three women in 1996, along with two other men, with one of the men, Willis Haynes, actually pulling the trigger. Haynes pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a prison sentence of life. In 2000, Higgs was found guilty of multiple federal offences, including first-degree premeditated murder, three first-degree felony murder counts, and three death-related kidnapping counts.
The crimes were committed in Maryland, where the death penalty has since been dropped. Higgs was executed at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., and was pronounced dead at 1:23 a.m., according to the Associated Press.
Shawn Nolan, a lawyer for Higgs, called him “a fine man, a terrific father, brother, and nephew” in a statement following the execution, who “spent decades on death row in solitary confinement helping others around him while working tirelessly to fight his unjust convictions.”
On Thursday night, Corey Johnson, 52, was executed. He had also contracted COVID-19 while in jail, and his attorney argued that it would have been “cruel and unusual punishment.” to execute him following the infection.
Early Wednesday, Lisa Montgomery was executed. She was the only woman on federal death row and the first female prisoner since 1953 to be put to death by the U.S. government.
