Dustin Higgs

American criminal

Dustin John Higgs (March 10, 1972 – January 16, 2021) was an American murderer. He was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. Higgs was sentenced to death for the murders of three young women in Maryland.[1]

The main controversy about Higgs's case was that Higgs did not personally kill any of the three victims. The man who fatally shot all three women to death, Willis Mark Haynes, was sentenced to life plus 45 years, while Higgs, who was in a vehicle when the killings took place, received a death sentence.[2]

It was argued that although Higgs did not kill anyone, he was the person in charge, and not only ordered Haynes to kill the women but bullied him into it.[3][4]

Higgs was scheduled for execution by lethal injection on January 15, 2021.[5] He was executed on January 16 at the USP Terre Haute in Terre Haute, Indiana at the age of 48.[6]

References

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  1. "Md. Man Sentenced to Die for Ordering '96 Triple Slayings". The Washington Post. October 27, 2000.
  2. "Maximum Sentence In '96 Triple Killing". The Washington Post. August 25, 2000.
  3. "In Trump's final days, a rush of federal executions". BBC News. December 11, 2020.
  4. "Trump plans to execute four Black death row inmates before he leaves office". Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. December 14, 2020.
  5. "Two death row inmates to be executed by Trump administration test positive for Covid". The Independent. December 18, 2020.
  6. U.S. Executes Dustin Higgs In 13th And Final Execution Under Trump Administration