Trump Administration Ends Its Execution Spree By Killing Dustin Higgs

The Trump administration executed Dustin Higgs, 48, early Saturday morning, shortly after the Supreme Court lifted a keep from a decrease courtroom. 

The authorities killed Higgs with a deadly injection of pentobarbital, over objections by his attorneys that lung injury from his latest bout of COVID-19 might make the execution terribly painful. They had requested that the execution be delayed till his lungs recovered.

Higgs was pronounced useless at 1:23 a.m. EST on the federal jail in Terre Haute, Indiana. 

He was the thirteenth individual executed beneath President Donald Trump’s unprecedented execution spree, and the third to die throughout Trump’s ultimate week in workplace. Lisa Montgomery, who was the one girl on federal loss of life row, was killed on Wednesday morning, and Corey Johnson, who had an mental incapacity and was additionally recovering from COVID-19, was put to loss of life on Thursday. The ultimate two executions happened after Trump was impeached, for the second time, for inciting violent rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol. 

One-third of the justices on the Supreme Court — which has repeatedly overturned choices by decrease courts to halt executions — have been appointed by Trump. The choice to permit Higgs’s execution to proceed got here right down to a 6-3 break up, with the liberal justices opposing the transfer. 

Higgs, who’s Black, was executed simply 4 days earlier than the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who has mentioned he’ll work to finish the loss of life penalty.

Until the very finish of his life, Higgs maintained his innocence. 

“Dustin was a fine man, a terrific father, brother, and nephew,” his lawyer Shawn Nolan mentioned in an announcement. “Dustin spent decades on death row in solitary confinement helping others around him, while working tirelessly to fight his unjust convictions. In spite of those awful circumstances, he remained true to his family, doing all he could to help raise his amazing children, who have grown up to be wonderful people. This is a true testament to Dustin’s character and to the man he had become.” 

“There was no reason to kill him, particularly during the pandemic and when he, himself, was sick with Covid that he contracted because of these irresponsible, super-spreader executions,” Nolan continued. “Rest in peace Dustin. Shame on all of those involved and all of those who have looked the other way.”

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, In a dissent outlining her opposition to permitting Higgs’s execution to go ahead, slammed the federal authorities and the courtroom for speeding by way of the killings. “This is not justice,” she wrote.

“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. When it did not, this Court should have. It has not,” Sotomayor continued.

“Because the Court continues this pattern today, I dissent.” 

Higgs was sentenced to loss of life for his position within the 1996 homicide of three girls in a nationwide park. The authorities didn’t declare he bodily killed anybody. Another man, Willis Mark Haynes, was sentenced to life in jail for fatally taking pictures the victims. Higgs was prosecuted on the speculation that he ordered Haynes to do the killings. Haynes says he acted of his personal accord.  

In a clemency petition, Higgs’s attorneys argued that it was “arbitrary and inequitable” to punish Higgs extra severely than the person who shot the ladies.

Tanji Jackson, the sister of one of many victims, mentioned in an announcement launched after the execution that she felt “mixed emotions” when she realized Higgs was scheduled to die. 

In the months main as much as his execution, Higgs’s attorneys filed a flurry of appeals in an try to spare his life. 

In December, he contracted COVID-19, because the virus swept by way of the jail advanced in Terre Haute, the place loss of life row is situated. At one level, the penitentiary had extra circumstances of COVID-19 than every other federal jail within the nation. 

Higgs and Corey Johnson, who was additionally sick with the coronavirus, sued to cease their executions, arguing that latest lung injury from COVID-19 made it extra doubtless they’d really feel excruciating ache in the course of the execution. 

When people are injected with a deadly quantity of pentobarbital, it might trigger pulmonary edema ― a situation by which fluid enters the lungs whereas the individual continues to be aware — inducing a painful sensation just like suffocating or drowning. Medical consultants have warned that receiving an overdose of pentobarbital would doubtless be much more painful for people recovering from COVID-19 as a result of the virus usually damages the lungs. 

Both males obtained stays of execution earlier this week after a federal decide discovered these issues credible. But increased courts overruled these choices, permitting the executions to go ahead. 

A separate class-action lawsuit filed by two prisoners at Terre Haute — who should not on loss of life row — sought to cease the executions on the grounds that holding such giant gatherings on the jail advanced risked their lives by probably exposing them to COVID-19.

The males requested for all executions to be halted till the pandemic was over or till they’d been vaccinated. A federal decide dominated that the Bureau of Prisons might proceed with the executions so long as workers adopted COVID-19 protocols, comparable to sporting masks. But throughout Johnson’s execution on Thursday night time, witnesses reported that two individuals working the execution didn’t put on a masks your complete time they have been within the chamber.

On Friday, the 2 non-death row prisoners requested a decide to cease Higgs’s execution or ban the staffers who had eliminated their masks from collaborating, arguing the federal government had violated the courtroom’s order. In response, the federal government admitted masks got here off however claimed it was briefly so staffers might talk clearly. The authorities argued it wasn’t a violation of the courtroom’s order as a result of the order didn’t explicitly outline “mask requirements.”

The decide sided with the federal government and allowed Higgs’s execution to proceed as deliberate. 

Higgs grew up in a poor neighborhood in Poughkeepsie, New York. His father was largely absent, in accordance with his clemency petition, however when he was round, he was an abusive and violent man. 

Higgs’s mom died of breast most cancers when he was solely 10 years previous. His father was in jail on the time. Higgs was deeply traumatized by the abrupt loss of life of his mom, in accordance with household statements, and lecturers mentioned he struggled in class and appeared “lost.” 

One night in 1996, when he was 23, he and two buddies — Haynes and Victor Gloria — have been hanging out with three girls inside Higgs’s condo. 

After an argument, the ladies — Tamika Black, 19, Tanji Jackson, 21, and Mishann Chinn, 23 — left on foot. The males adopted in Higgs’s van and picked them up. Higgs drove the van into the Patuxent wildlife refuge. It was there that Haynes shot them.

At Higgs’s trial, the federal government argued that he ordered Haynes to kill the ladies. Higgs was discovered responsible of three counts every of first-degree premeditated homicide, first-degree homicide dedicated throughout a kidnapping, and kidnapping leading to loss of life, together with firearms costs. 

Prosecutors pushed for Higgs to be sentenced to loss of life, regardless of the very fact he didn’t pull the set off. “I have to think, ladies and gentlemen, this world would have been a better place without Dustin Higgs,” the prosecutor advised the jury. “The hard truth is, ladies and gentlemen, it would be a better world in the future without Dustin Higgs.”

Haynes vehemently disputes that Higgs ordered him to kill the ladies. 

“The prosecution’s theory of our case was bullshit,” he wrote in a 2012 affidavit. “Dustin didn’t threaten me. I was not scared of him. Dustin didn’t make me do anything, that night or ever.” Haynes mentioned he was intoxicated when he shot the ladies and was not considering straight. 

The authorities’s case was supported virtually completely by the testimony of Victor Gloria, the opposite man current on the night time of the killings. Shawn Nolan, one among Higgs’s attorneys, known as Gloria an unreliable eyewitness who obtained a considerable deal in trade for his cooperation.

“The basis for which Mr. Higgs is on death row has been dismantled. He was not the shooter. He didn’t kill anybody,” Nolan mentioned. 

Over half 1,000,000 individuals signed a Change.org petition calling to halt his execution.

Higgs leaves behind a son who was born shortly after he was incarcerated. 

“From a child to adulthood, my father was always there for me to confide in, to laugh with, to cry with, and even get upset with. But he was always there and has been my number one supporter, showed me what love is, and taught me to be a better man,” Higgs’s son wrote in a letter accompanying Higgs’ clemency petition. “I cannot imagine or think of where I could’ve ended up without the love and encouragement of my father.”