MD Man Executed Days Before Trump Leaves Office

LAUREL, MD — Former President Donald Trump changed one last precedent before leaving the White House. Trump's team completed another round of federal executions last Friday, five days before his term was up.

One of those sentenced to death was Laurel man Dustin John Higgs. He is one of 13 people that the Department of Justice has ordered to be executed since last July.

That's the most executions cleared by a president since 1896. Grover Cleveland's White House put 14 convicts to death that year, the non-partisan Death Penalty Information Center told the Associated Press. The Trump camp is the first in 17 years to order a federal execution.

"The government completed its unprecedented slaughter of 13 human beings tonight by killing Dustin Higgs, a Black man who never killed anyone," the deceased man's lawyer, Shawn Nolan, said in a press release hours after Friday's execution. "Dustin was a fine man, a terrific father, brother, and nephew."

Nolan maintains that his client is innocent. He points to differing sentences between Higgs and his friend, Willis Mark Haynes.

The DOJ accused both men of involvement in a 1996 triple murder in the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge. Prosecutors said Higgs ordered Haynes to shoot the female victims. Haynes complied and pulled the trigger, an incident report added.

The DOJ identified the victims as:

• Tamika Black, 19
• Tanji Jackson, 21
• Mishann Chinn, 23

Higgs got a death sentence; Haynes did not. The friend was sentenced to life in prison plus 45 years.

"Dustin Higgs did not kill anyone and should not be executed," Nolan wrote to Patch, mentioning that Higgs had a troubled childhood that was not adequately presented to the jury. "It would be arbitrary and inequitable to punish Mr. Higgs more severely than the person who committed the murders."

A federal jury found Higgs guilty of the following crimes:

• Three counts of first-degree premeditated murder
• Three counts of first-degree felony murder
• Three counts of kidnapping resulting in death

In 2000, a judge gave Higgs nine death sentences, the DOJ noted. The courts upheld Higgs' conviction in an appeal about 17 years ago. His other challenges failed around eight years ago.

With Trump preparing one last round of pardons and commutations, Higgs asked the president to commute his sentence in December of 2020. That would have freed Higgs from prison and removed him from death row. A petition on change.org supported Higgs' cause, gaining more than 366,000 signatures.

Trump denied the request. The execution continued as planned on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

After Higgs tested positive for coronavirus last month, his attorney gave one last push. Nolan argued that COVID-19 damaged Higg's lungs, putting him "at an unacceptably high risk of consciously suffering the excruciating pain and terror" of the execution. Like the other motions, the move failed.

"There was no reason to kill him, particularly during the pandemic and when he, himself, was sick with Covid," Nolan said. "Rest in peace Dustin. Shame on all of those involved and all of those who have looked the other way."

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RELATED:

• Trump Frees 1 Marylander From Life Sentence, Pardons Dozens
• Backlash Ensues Before Execution Of Maryland Man
• Execution Scheduled For MD Man Accused Of Triple Murder: DOJ

Have a story idea? Please contact me at jacob.baumgart@patch.com with any pitches, tips or questions. Follow me on Twitter @JacobBaumgart and on Facebook @JacobBaumgartJournalist to stay up-to-date with the latest Anne Arundel County and Prince George's County news.—