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The stays of execution were later vacated, and the Supreme Court also denied Johnson’s last-minute appeal Thursday night.Īn Associated Press reporter who witnessed Johnson’s execution said there were no obvious signs that he ever experienced pain. Lawyers for him and Johnson, who also contracted the virus, argued that the lethal injections used by the Justice Department would cause fluid to rush into their damaged lungs and spark a sensation of drowning, essentially constituting torture. Higgs’ execution was briefly stalled this week because of his COVID-19 diagnosis. “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.” After finding Dustin Higgs guilty of the kidnapping and murder of Tamika Black, Mishann Chinn, and Tanji Jackson, a jury determined that he should receive the death penalty. “I’m currently sitting on Death Row for a crime I didn’t commit!” Higgs said in a statement posted on a website created by his advocates. This 2015 photo provided by Shawn Nolan Chief, Capital Habeas Unit Community Federal Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, shows Dustin Higgs at the Federal Prison in Terre Haute, Ind. (AP) The man who fatally shot the three women was not given the death penalty. Higgs insisted through his dying day that he was innocent and never told his co-defendant to murder the women. Because the Court continues this pattern today, I dissent.” “When it did not, this Court should have. 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,” Sotomayor wrote in her dissent. Justices Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. The Supreme Court threw out his last chance at life late Friday night, overruling a stay issued by the U.S. Prosecutors said the former Maryland resident ordered a friend to kill the victims in January 1996 because one of them had rejected his sexual advances. Higgs was sentenced to death in 2000 for the kidnapping and murder of three women - Tamika Black, 19, Tanji Jackson, 21, and Mishann Chinn, 23. Higgs was pronounced dead at 1:23 Saturday morning, the Associated Press reported. He was the third federal inmate to die this week, following the executions of drug trafficker Corey Johnson on Thursday night and Lisa Montgomery early Wednesday morning. The federal government under President Trump executed a 13th person early Saturday morning, brushing off his innocence claims and recent coronavirus diagnosis to cap a stunning and record-breaking execution spree.ĭustin Higgs, 48, was killed by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind.