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Another federal death row inmate in Indiana was executed early Saturday – marking the final execution under the Trump administration and the 13th since July.
Dustin John Higgs, convicted of ordering the murder of three women in Maryland in 1996, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead shortly after 1 a.m. in federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Higgs, 48, was put to death while suffering from coronavirus.
He is also the third inmate to be executed by the Trump administration this week.
In his last words, Higgs insisted he was not guilty.
“I would like to say that I am an innocent man,” he said. “I did not order the murders.”
On Tuesday, a federal judge delayed the execution of Higgs and Cory Johnson, a former drug trafficker who was executed Thursday, citing poor health.
The Supreme Court paved the way for Higgs’ execution on Friday night.
After the execution, Higg’s attorney Shawn Nolan said his client had spent decades “working tirelessly to fight his wrongful convictions.”
“There was no reason to kill him, especially during the pandemic and when he himself was sick with the COVID he contracted from these irresponsible and super-propagative executions,” Nolan said.
Early Wednesday, Lisa Montgomery was executed by lethal injection in Terre Haute after serving years on federal death row for cutting a pregnant woman and running away with the baby.
She became the first woman executed in the United States since 1953.
President-elect Joe Biden has said he is against the death penalty.
With Post Wires
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