For the first time since 1889, Donald Trump has ordered the federal execution of five people on death row, Brandon Bernard, Alfred Bourgeois, Lisa Montgomery, Corey Johnson, and Dustin John Higgs, during his lame duck period. Newsweek reached out to Higgs' team for further comment but did not hear back before publication.In a modern world that so heavily emphasizes a push for progressivism in politics, Donald Trump’s time as a lame-duck president, the time a president serves between the end of a presidential election and Inauguration Day, successfully managed to turn back the clock further than should have been possible. The DOJ should withdraw Dustin's execution date or President Trump should commute his death sentence," Shawn Nolan, one of Higgs' attorneys, previously told Newsweek. "The government should not carry out yet another super-spreader execution in the heart of this global pandemic. The petition argues it would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition from cruel or unusual punishment to execute them while they are recovering. Higgs and Johnson, who also tested positive for the coronavirus, are awaiting a ruling on litigation that was jointly filed to halt their executions. Another inmate, Lisa Montgomery, was set to be executed this week as well, but received a stay earlier Tuesday by a federal judge. Higgs' attorneys have called on the DOJ to withdraw his execution date after he became the first federal death row inmate to contract COVID-19 last month.Ĭory Johnson is also facing execution this week. The current administration has executed more people in a single year than any administration in more than a century. īernard and Higgs are part of an unprecedented spree of federal executions that began last summer amid the coronavirus pandemic and will be set to end just days before Trump leaves office. It will take the voice of many to bring the wall down!"Ī photo of Dustin Higgs from the petition calling to halt his scheduled execution, which is set to take place January 15, 2020. "My voice doesn't hold enough weight to bring down this wall of injustice. "I'm currently sitting on Death Row for a crime I didn't commit! I wonder if it's that I'm not yelling loud enough, or is it that the blatant miscarriage of justice of me being killed for a crime I'm certainly innocent of really doesn't matter," a website calling for his clemency,, reads. Bernard's case gained national attention after several high-profile figures, including Kim Kardashian West, appealed to Trump to commute his sentence to life in prison. Don't let what happened to Brandon Bernard happen again."īernard was put to death last month by the federal government at a penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, the same center where Higgs is set to be executed.
#Dustin john higgs execution free
"So please help me to free this innocent man. But even Willis Hayes has said that this is false," the petition reads. "The only reason he's still in jail is because they say he was at the scene of the crime and he was accused of bullying Willis Hayes (who did commit the crime) into killing the three girls. The other man, Willis Haynes, was tried separately and not sentenced to death after the DOJ determined he shot all three women dead. to pick up Tamika Black, Tanji Jackson and Mishann Chinn and drive them back to his apartment in Maryland.Īfter offering the women a ride back to Washington, D.C., prosecutors said Higgs instead drove them to a secluded area, where he gave one of his friends a gun and told him to "better make sure they're dead." Higgs was sentenced to death in 2000 for the kidnapping and murder of three young women in 1996.Īccording to the Department of Justice, Higgs and two friends drove to Washington, D.C. This innocent man should be spared," it continues. All witnesses, including the man who actually killed the girls, confirm Dustin's innocence. "He was accused of killing three girls but later to be found not guilty. Supreme Court begins by saying that, "Dustin John Higgs is going to be executed for a crime he didn't commit."
Higgs will be among the last of federal death row inmates currently scheduled for execution on Friday, five days before President-elect Joe Biden, a death penalty opponent, is inaugurated and a new administration begins.Ī petition addressed to President Donald Trump and the U.S.
More than 1.5 million people are demanding the life of Dustin Higgs be spared as the inmate faces his scheduled execution later this week.
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