Dustin Higgs, federal Inmate set for execution, has coronavirus

A federal inmate scheduled to be executed in the final days of the Trump administration has tested positive for coronavirus, his lawyer said Thursday.

Dustin Higgs, who was convicted of murdering three women outside of Washington, tested positive at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.

All 10 federal executions since the government reinstated the death penalty this year have taken place in Terre Haute.

“This is surely the result of the super spreader executions that the government has rushed to undertake in the heart of a global pandemic,” said Higgs’ attorney, Shawn Nolan. “Following the two executions that took place last week and one other two weeks prior, the COVID numbers at the federal prison in Terre Haute spiked enormously.”

The execution is set for Jan. 15, five days before Democrat Joseph R. Biden, an avowed death penalty opponent, is scheduled to take the presidential oath of office, likely spelling a short-term end to federal executions.

Two other federal executions are scheduled at the Terre Haute complex in the days before Higgs is set to be put to death. As of Thursday, more than 300 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at the complex, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Mr. Nolan said he has asked the government to withdraw the execution date.

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

In a statement to The Associated Press, the Bureau of Prisons said a contact tracing investigation revealed that, in addition to death-row inmates, an employee working in the unit had also tested positive. That worker had no contact with any staff members involved in executions in November or December, the statement said.

The agency neither specified how many death-row inmates had tested positive not identified any of them by name.

Higgs was convicted of ordering the 1996 murders of three women at a federal wildlife center near Beltsville. Prosecutors say Higgs kidnapped the woman after they rebuffed his advances at a party. He gave a gun to one of his friends to kill the women, according to court documents.

Mr. Nolan said Higgs should not be put to death because he didn’t kill anyone, noting that his co-defendant, who prosecutors said carried out the killings, did not get sentenced to death.