Dustin Higgs was the 13th federal prisoner executed since July 2020, and maintained he was innocent, even with his final words.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, the Trump administration executed Dustin Higgs for taking part in a triple murder in Maryland in 1996, a crime of which he claimed to be innocent, including with his final words. Higgs’ execution marked the 13th, and final, federal execution carried out by the Trump administration over the course of six months, a run which has broken starkly with modern precedent both in terms of speed and intensity: The administration has carried out more federal executions since last summer than presidents have in the last 67 years combined. The Trump administration has argued that the executions were conducted as a matter of law, noting that all of those executed were found guilty at trial. “If you ask juries to impose and juries impose it, then it should be carried out,” former Trump administration attorney general Bill Barr, told the Associated Press days before his resignation in December. But many criminal justice advocates — and some members of the Supreme Court — have argued that the schedule has been rushed in a way that neglected appropriate deliberation of the legality of the killings, and that they unfairly targeted people of color, as well as, people suffering from severe trauma. And many legal analysts note that Higgs’ execution was greenlit by the Supreme Court through a maneuver that they describe as an unprecedented and a transparent bid to facilitate Trump’s agenda. Higgs was found guilty in 2000 of first-degree premeditated murder, three counts of first-degree felony murder, and three counts of kidnapping resulting in death. The Justice Department said that in 1996 Higgs traveled with two male friends and three women to a Maryland wildlife refuge, and ordered one of his friends to shoot the three women, one of whom had allegedly rebuffed an advance by him. Higgs has said he is innocent of the crime, and that he gave no order for a killing. His friend who fired the shots who is serving a life sentence, Willis Haynes, has disputed the prosecutions’ argument that Higgs coerced him into the act in a signed affidavit, saying, “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.” Higgs reportedly claimed innocence again in his final words. “I’d like to say I am an innocent man…. I am not responsible for the deaths,” he said, while mentioning the names of the victims. “I did not order the murders.
