US carries out 13th and final execution of Trump era

Dustin Higgs, convicted in the killings of three women in 1996, was the third to receive a lethal injection this week at a federal prison in Indiana

No president in more than 120 years had overseen as many federal executions

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An anti-death penalty activist holds a sign along Prairieton Road across from the Federal Death Chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana. Photo: The Tribune-Star via AP

Published: 3:31pm, 16 Jan 2021Updated: 3:31pm, 16 Jan 2021

The Trump administration on Friday carried out its 13th federal execution since July, an unprecedented run that concluded just five days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden – an opponent of the federal death penalty.

Dustin Higgs, convicted in the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge in 1996, was the third to receive a lethal injection this week at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department resumed federal executions last year following a 17-year hiatus. No president in more than 120 years had overseen as many federal executions.

Higgs, 48, was pronounced dead at 1.23am (local time).

The number of federal death sentences carried out under Trump since 2020 is more than in the previous 56 years combined, reducing the number of prisoners on federal death row by nearly a quarter. It’s likely none of the around 50 remaining men will be executed any time soon, with Biden signalling he’ll end federal executions.

The only woman on death row, Lisa Montgomery, was executed on Wednesday for killing a pregnant woman, then cutting the baby out of her womb and claiming it as her own. She was the first woman executed in nearly 70 years.

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