US to handle 13th and final government execution under Trump administration

AMERICA government was set to handle the 13th and final federal execution under President Donald Trump's administration on Friday (Jan 15) evening, just five days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office with a promise to attempt to end the loss of life penalty.

Five hours just after Dustin Higgs, 48, was placed to be executed, the US Supreme Court's conservative majority cleared the way for lethal injections to proceed by overturning a stay ordered by a federal appeals courtroom.

Higgs was convicted and sentenced to loss of life in 2001 for overseeing the kidnapping and murder of 3 women on a government wildlife reserve in Maryland found in 1996: Tanji Jackson, Tamika Dark colored and Mishann Chinn.

The US Division of Justice plans to execute him with lethal injections of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate, at its death chamber in its prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The Supreme Court's ruling on Fri was consistent with its earlier decisions: It had also dismissed any orders by lower courts delaying federal executions given that they were resumed this past year.

The government executed 10 people this past year, more than 3 x as many people as in the last six years, marking the 1st time that it had conducted more executions than all US states combined, according to a data source compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center. A minority of the country's 50 says still perform executions.

Higgs is defined to be the 13th person executed by the US government in an extraordinary spree begun last summertime by Trump, a good Republican and avowed advocate of capital punishment, after a good 17-year hiatus at the federal level. Ahead of Trump, the government had executed only three people since 1963.

After a failed triple date with the three girls, Higgs and his accomplice, Willis Haynes, offered to drive them home but instead took them to the Patuxent Exploration Refuge.

Prosecutors said Higgs gave Haynes a gun and told him to shoot the 3 women of all ages. Haynes, who confessed to staying the shooter, was sentenced alive in prison, while Higgs was sentenced to loss of life in another trial, a disparity that his legal representatives say is grounds for clemency.

The Supreme Court agreed to the Justice Department's request to overturn an order by less court delaying the execution while a legal question is resolved: Government law requires that an execution be completed in the way of the state where the condemned was sentenced, but Maryland has since abolished the death penalty.

The Justice Department had unsuccessfully sought a new sentencing order from a federal judge in Maryland so they can execute Higgs following procedures found in Indiana, circumstances that still allows lethal injections and that's home to the department's execution chamber.

The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals scheduled a hearing on the matter for Jan 27, practically two weeks after Higgs' scheduled execution, which the Justice Department said left it hamstrung unless the Supreme Court overturned the delay.

Higgs and another loss of life row inmate, Corey Johnson, were identified as having COVID-19 found in December, but on Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected an buy by a federal judge found in Washington delaying their executions for several weeks to permit their lungs to heal. The Justice Section executed Johnson on Thursday evening.

Following the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued with respect to other inmates at the prison complex, a federal judge in Indiana ruled that the executions of Johnson and Higgs could only proceed if the US Bureau of Prisons enforced several measures to stem the spread of COVID-19.

One measure ordered by Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson was that prison and execution officials observe "mask requirements", but media witnesses and Johnson's spiritual adviser, Reverend Costs Breeden, who was simply at Johnson's area, said at least 1 of 2 US officials in the area didn't have a mask about for many minutes.

The ACLU unsuccessfully asked the judge to get the Bureau of Prisons in contempt of court and order Higgs' execution be halted. Asked why it should not be within contempt, the Bureau of Prisons responded on Thursday night time by expressing "mask requirements" was not clearly identified, and that it had been important for officials to eliminate or not use their masks for "clear communication".

Alexa Cave, Higgs' sister, travelled to Terre Haute with her adult son to become a witness if the execution proceeds, and said she was praying for something to delay it. Life in prison will be a more simply punishment, she explained, adding that she speaks with him by phone multiple times weekly.

"They don't contain freedom at all in virtually any sense of the term," she said in an interview. "What purpose does it provide to destroy you? It brings little or nothing back."