A prisoner scheduled for death row is positive for COVID-19 and whose execution will be before President Trump's end term. The lawyer told the press before the scheduled execution.
During a court hearing, the Bureau of Prisons told the defense attorneys for Dustin Higgs last Thursday. Devon Porter, the convict's attorney, told the court during a hearing.
It comes as more prisoners are getting infected by the coronavirus in many prisons of the federal system. One such place is the Terre Haute, Indiana, with facilities to carry out executions. No other jail is best equipped to carry out death sentences, reported AP News.
Higgs execution date will be on January 15, about five days before a presidential pardon could stop it. The death row convict is included in the group to be the first to be executed in a long time. Executions started in July.
The media has cited the current administration for issuing federal executions in one year. They are critical of the executions that have been the most in 130 years, coinciding with increased crime cases.
Finding out that the inmate is infected with COVID-19 is the first case for one scheduled for death. It might be used to ask for a delay of the sentence from a judge to show he worsens. One of the fears from getting incarcerated is the inmate will get the virus and impact the sentence's carrying out.
According to The Associated Press, the Bureau of Prisons confirmed that all inmates were set for federal execution. It is known as the Special Confinement Unit for those with COVID-19 positive diagnosis.
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The BOP added that contact tracing is done and showed that a worker in the unit is also positive for the contagion. Sources say the employee positive for COVID-19 was not in contact with anyone involved in executions in November or December.
No information was given to identify all the tested positive prisoners, though all those positive when tested, will be given isolation as a precaution.
Shawn Nolan, his defense, said that the rushed schedule caused the spread of infection to executed all sentences during the pandemic. After the two executions last week and another before that when cases had spiked at the Terre Haute facility. He said that his client is sick and the government should move back the execution date or the court will be petitioned.
Confirmed last Thursday are 300 prisoners who are infected with COVID-19 in the facility. BOP official said that many are either asymptomatic or with mild symptoms were detected.
Before Higgs gets executed, there will be two before him getting their sentences done.
He was found guilty for ordering the murders of three women in 1996; they are Tamika Black, Mishann Chinn, and Tanji Jackson, who was killed at a federal wildlife center in Beltsville, Maryland. The victims were killed because of rejecting him at a party.
Nolan argued that the inmate did not kill any of the three women. He should not face federal execution. His accomplice who killed them weren't given the death penalty.
According to sources, the death row prisoner has found some peace, but his lawyer disagrees with the death sentence.
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