Dustin Higgs execution 'rushed through as part of discount deal with mystery killing squad who execute three in a week'

DUSTIN Higgs execution was allegedly rushed through because of a cost-saving deal with a mysterious “execution squad” who put two other murderers to death this week, The Sun can reveal.

Higgs, who kidnapped and murdered three women, was executed on Saturday morning at the Terre Haute federal prison, Indiana, making him the third death row inmate to be executed this week – and the 13th violent criminal to die under the Trump presidency.

His attorney, Shawn Nolan, told The Sun that it is no coincidence that his death so closely follows that of "womb raider" Lisa Montgomery on Wednesday and drug trafficker Corey Johnson on Thursday at the same prison, claiming the federal prison authorities contract out executions and it makes it cheaper to do three in a week.

"In several cases they have executed two or three prisoners in the same week and they do this because they use outside contractors who come in to do the executions," he said.

‘They [federal prison authorities] say they schedule two to three a week because they pay them for a week.

‘They won’t tell us who they are. We don’t know who they are… They are an execution team."

Higgs, 48, was given the lethal injection and pronounced dead at 1:23am local time at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Higgs maintained his innocence while on death row for kidnapping and murdering 19-year-old Tamika Black, 21-year-old Tanji Jackson, and 23-year-old Mishann Chinn – in Maryland.

Defense attorneys won temporary stays of execution this week for Higgs and fellow death row inmate Johnson, after they became infected with Covid-19.

Lawyers for him and Johnson, who was also had the virus, argued that the lethal injection would swamp their damaged lungs with fluid while they still were conscious and make them feel as if they were drowning.

Nolan, who is chief of the federal habeas corpus unit for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, blamed an execution squad for a Covid-19 outbreak at the prison after other executions.

"We have argued that these executions are super spreader events because they bring in outside people," he said.

Defence lawyers for two prisoners executed last year claimed that federal authorities admitted that ‘some’ execution team members tested positive for the virus after they administered a lethal injection to a Texan man who raped and murdered a teenager.

Higgs has always maintained his innocence of the crime saying that another man, Willis Haynes, actually pulled the trigger.

Higgs' journey to death row began in January 1996, when he, Haynes, and another friend Victor Gloria, drove from Washington, DC to Maryland to pick up the three women and bring them to his apartment to drink and listen to music.

After Tanji rejected a pass he made, Higgs offered to take the three home but instead drove them to an isolated wildlife refuge, where he ordered them out of the car and gave a gun to Haynes.

The prosecution alleged Higgs threatened Haynes and warned him he’d “better make sure they’re dead” as he handed over the gun.

But Hayes – who confessed to pulling the trigger – denied this account, saying, "Dustin didn’t threaten me. I was not scared of him. Dustin didn’t make me do anything that night or ever."

Haynes, who gave the statement in a 2012 affidavit included in a clemency application for Higgs, was given a life sentence.

In a statement online, Higgs said: "I’m currently sitting on Death Row for a crime I didn’t commit! Is it that the blatant miscarriage of justice of me being killed for a crime i’m certainly innocent of really doesn’t matter?"

President Donald Trump's Justice Department resumed federal executions of violent felons last year following a 17-year hiatus.

President-elect Joe Biden – an opponent of the federal death penalty – is expected to ban federal executions when he takes office next week. That has supposedly contributed to the recent spate of killers being put to death.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on Nolan's claims when contacted by The Sun, saying information must be requested via the Freedom of Information Act.

"We have no additional information to provide," a spokesman said.

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