BEVERLY HILL, January 16, (THEWILL) – The U.S. government, Saturday morning, executed Dustin J. Higgs for his role in the 1996 murder of three women in a national park.
Higgs, 48, was executed shortly after the Supreme Court lifted a stay from a lower court, over objections by his lawyers that lung damage from his recent bout of COVID-19 could make the execution extraordinarily painful. They had asked that the execution be delayed until his lungs recovered.
He was pronounced dead at 1:23 a.m. EST after a lethal injection of pentobarbital, at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Higgs was the 13th person executed under President Donald Trump’s unprecedented execution spree, and the third to die during his final week in office.
Lisa Montgomery, who was the only woman on federal death row, was killed on Wednesday morning, and Corey Johnson (who had an intellectual disability and was also recovering from COVID-19), was put to death on Thursday.
The decision to allow Higgs’s execution to proceed came down to a 6-3 split, with the liberal justices opposing the move.
Higgs, who is Black, was executed just four days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who has said he will work to end the death penalty.
Until the very end of his life, Higgs maintained his innocence.
“Dustin was a fine man, a terrific father, brother, and nephew. 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
“Rest in peace Dustin. Shame on all of those involved and all of those who have looked the other way”, his lawyer, Shawn Nolan said in a statement.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, In a dissent outlining her opposition to allowing Higgs’s execution to go forward, slammed the federal government and the court for rushing through 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. Because the Court continues this pattern today, I dissent”, Sotomayor added.
Higgs grew up in a poor neighborhood in Poughkeepsie, New York. His father was largely absent, according to his clemency petition, but when he was around, he was an abusive and violent man.
Higgs’s mother died of breast cancer when he was only 10 years old. His father was in prison at the time. Higgs was deeply traumatized by the abrupt death of his mother, according to family statements, and teachers said he struggled in school and seemed “lost.”
One evening in 1996, when he was 23, he and two friends (Haynes and Victor Gloria), were hanging out with three women inside Higgs’s apartment.
After an argument, the women (Tamika Black, 19, Tanji Jackson, 21, and Mishann Chinn, 23) left on foot.
The men followed 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 government argued that he ordered Haynes to kill the women. Higgs was found guilty of three counts each of first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree murder committed during a kidnapping, and kidnapping resulting in death, along with firearms charges.
Prosecutors pushed for Higgs to be sentenced to death, despite the fact he did not pull the trigger. “I have to think, ladies and gentlemen, this world would have been a better place without Dustin Higgs. The hard truth is, ladies and gentlemen, it would be a better world in the future without Dustin Higgs”, the prosecutor told the jury.
Haynes vehemently disputes that Higgs ordered him to kill the women.
“The prosecution’s theory of our case was bullshit. Dustin didn’t threaten me. I was not scared of him. Dustin didn’t make me do anything, that night or ever”, he wrote in a 2012 affidavit.
Haynes said he was intoxicated when he shot the women and was not thinking straight.
The government’s case was supported almost exclusively by the testimony of Victor Gloria, the other man present on the night of the killings. Shawn Nolan, one of Higgs’s attorneys, called Gloria an eyewitness.
“The basis for which Mr. Higgs is on death row has been dismantled. He was not the shooter. He didn’t kill anybody”, Nolan said.
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.
“I cannot imagine or think of where I could’ve ended up without the love and encouragement of my father”, Higgs’s son wrote in a letter accompanying Higgs’ clemency petition.
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