Federal inmate due to be executed next month tests positive for COVID-19

Federal death row inmate – the last person to be executed by the Trump administration before the president-elect Joe bidenJoe BidenBooker: COVID-19 relief bill ‘falls short’ of pandemic aid desired for states and communities Trump to appoint Giuliani’s son to the Biden Holocaust Memorial Council would save US $ 0.6 billion by stopping construction of border wall: PLUS report takes office Jan. 20 – contracted coronavirus, Associated Press reports.

An attorney for Dustin John Higgs said he was briefed on his client’s diagnosis on Thursday. Higgs was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of three women in 2000.

The news comes as concern has grown over the rapid spread of COVID-19 in US prisons, including the Terre Haute complex in Indonesia, where federal executions are being carried out, according to the AP .

“This is surely the result of the super-spreading executions that the government rushed to undertake in the midst of a global pandemic,” said Shawn Nolan, one of Higgs’ lawyers, according to the AP. “Following the two executions that took place last week and another two weeks earlier, the COVID numbers at Terre Haute federal prison have increased dramatically.”

Higgs’ disease could cause his execution, scheduled for Jan.15, to be delayed as his lawyers fear his condition will worsen. Higgs’ diagnosis means he will likely be banned from visiting his family in the weeks leading up to his expected death, the AP reports.

“Now our client is sick,” Nolan said. “We have asked the government to remove the execution date and we will ask the courts to intervene if they do not.”

The Trump administration set the record for the most federal executions in a presidential transition period with its recent spate of executions in the death row. Attorney General William barrBill BarrCruz: Mexico damages security and relations with United States by undermining DEA McConnell’s knockout on Trump Biden says he is ‘confident’ his son Hunter Biden did nothing wrong MORE gave the green light to the federal government to resume executions in July after a 17-year ban.

Should the execution be delayed until Biden takes office, it is possible that the president-elect will suspend Briggs’ death via an immediate freeze on federal executions. Biden had previously expressed his desire to abolish the federal death penalty when he was sworn in as president.

– Updated 20:07