Died in 2021. Louds sobs of a woman crying inconsolably began to echo from the witness room reserved for Higgs family as his eyes rolled back in his head, showing the whites of his eyes. Hardy received a life sentence. All rights reserved. Prosecutors said Taylor had been involved in a string of robberies in the neighborhood and knew Luck was planningto testify against him. Roof had previously told friends he wanted to start a race war. Shot and killed his girlfriend after he escaped from a detention center where he was being held on a federal weapons charge. She had never known Higgs to be violent toward women. 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. That was our original goal. But eventually Higgs started to pull away from her. Originally sentenced to death on March 16, 2002. She was pronounced dead at 01:31 (06:31 GMT). Summary: A jury convictedGabrionin 2002 for the killing of19-year-old Rachel Timmerman. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 1920's 1930's 1940's 1950's 1960's 1970-1990's 2000's 2010's 2020's Higgs is scheduled to be executed on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, at the federal prison in Terre Haute. Summary: A jury convicted Battle for bludgeoning prison guard D'Antonio Andrew Washington to death with a ball-peen hammer in Atlanta he'd obtained from a mechanical services work crew. The 52-year-old strangled a pregnant woman before cutting out and kidnapping her baby in Missouri in 2004. on Tuesday at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, but an order from an Indiana court requiring a mental health competency hearing . Hundreds of people travel to Terre Haute for the executions and interact with members of the local community, congregate in locations in the prison where social distancing is impossible, and then travel home, potentially contracting or spreading COVID-19 each step of the way. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002; died in 2019. The brothers kidnapped the bankpresident Dan Short early Oct. 6, 1989 and forced forced him to open the bank. CHICAGO (AP) A second federal inmate scheduled to be put to death next month in a series of executions by the Trump administration has tested positive for COVID-19, his lawyers said Friday.. Wingate hadmoved back to New York when she got a phone call in 1996 saying that Higgs had been arrested for dealing drugs. Kadamovas and co-defendant Iouri Mikhel were sentenced to death for the ransom related kidnappings and murders of five people. Read about our approach to external linking. His lawyers asked us to testify at his sentencing hearing, to make them know what we know about Dustin, that hes not this monster that the prosecution said he is, she recalled. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File) Two Monroe County ministers are suing federal prison officials for the right to . The killing became a federal case after prosecutors believed it occurred in Manistee National Forest. (Co-defendant of Ricardo Sanchez Jr.). In his earliest statements to police, he said that hed been passed out in the backseat of Higgss van and woke up to gunshots. Death sentence vacated on grounds of intellectual disability on June 18, 2019. With last-minute appeals, it was delayed into early Saturday. It wasnt until 2009 that Fulks helped police find her remains, according to news reports. Thats all it takes to support the journalism you rely on. He also was convicted in state court for using a claw hammer to bludgeon to death an 80-year-old woman who suffered from polio and walked with a cane. When Dustin first came home from the hospital, I was there, Wingate said. Summary:Sanders was sentenced to death for the kidnaping and murder of a 12-year-old girl in Louisiana. And a lot of the times, it turns out that what theyre telling me is really the truth. Police, after all, rely upon myriad tactics to get suspects and witnesses to talk, including threats and promises that can provide a powerful incentive to lie. A juryrecommended the death sentence for Fulks and Basham in the kidnapping and murder of a 44-year-oldAlice Donovan of South Carolina. Copyright 2023, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. The lead prosecutor in Higgss case, Deborah Johnston, was an assistant states attorney in Prince Georges County before she became a federal prosecutor. Lisa Montgomery arrives at Terre Haute execution facility, official Montgomery's lawyer, Kelley Henry, said that everyone who had participated in the execution "should feel shame". With the help of one of Higgss friends on death row, Wingate raised enough money to visit her brother for the first time. The arson left six people dead, including for children. Published Jan 13, 2021 TERRE HAUTE, Ind. 2023 www.indystar.com. Murdered an 82-year-old hiker in a robbery at. Resentenced to death in 2005. Gloria replied, That was the police.. ((Federal Bureau of Prisons/Community Federal Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania via AP)). Basham and Fulks kidnapped Donovan from a Walmart parking lot. In a 2014 affidavit, Higgss trial attorney Henry Trainor wrote that the information about Gloria would have altered the case significantly. Joining is simple and doesnt need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. 0:23. I said, OK, well, you can come and we can start this family business. Dzhokhar will spend his remaining days locked up in prison, with the only matter remaining being whether he will die by execution, Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson wrote in the ruling, according to the Associated Press. Dustin didnt make me do anything that night or ever. Higgs also argues that his defense attorneys failed to investigate critical witnesses and that federal prosecutors hid evidence from his attorneys at trial. Nelson kidnapped a 10-year-old girl rollerblading in front of her home, and in a forest behind a church, raped her and strangled her to death with a wire. The execution chamber was constructed just after the passage of the 1994 crime bill, but the surrounding penitentiary predates even the interstate. It was the first time she was going to see her brother since his sentencing trial, and she was anxious and excited. State of conviction:Texas Eastern District Court. State of conviction: Southern District of Florida. Shooting and killing two employees during a robbery at the. After 11 executions waved through by the U.S. Supreme Court, few are optimistic that Johnson or Higgs will be spared. Mikhel and co-defendant Jurijus Kadamovas were sentenced to death for the ransom related kidnappings and murders of five people. Torrezs convictions connected in the murders of three women, one of whom he raped, influenced the jury to hand him a death sentence. Higgss mother had died of cancer when he was a child, and the whole family saw how, in the absence of his father, he strived to take care of her in her final days. U.S. carries out 13th and final execution under Trump administration From the archives: Retrial in Karen Styles killing, State of conviction:Western District of Michigan. Haynes persuaded them to get into the vehicle. State of conviction: Western District of North Carolina. He was the only Native American on death row up until his execution. State of conviction:Northern District of Illinois. Higgs, the last federal inmate facing execution before President Donald Trump leaves office was sentenced to death for the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge in 1996. In a statement after the execution, Higgs' attorney, Shawn Nolan, said his client had spent decades on death row helping other inmates and "working tirelessly to fight his unjust convictions. Prosecutors said the menreceived more than $1 million in ransom. Follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim. State of conviction: Eastern District of Texas. Higgs' lawyers argued it was "arbitrary and inequitable" to execute Higgs while Willis Haynes, the man who fired the shots that killed the women, was spared a death sentence. State of conviction:North District of Georgia. State of conviction:Western District of Arkansas. Chinn worked with the childrens choir at a church, Jackson worked in the office at a high school and Black was a teachers aide at National Presbyterian School in Washington, according to The Washington Post. Lisa Montgomery - the only female inmate on federal death row in the US - has been executed for murder. Since 1976, 16 women other than Lisa Montgomery have been executed but all by individual states rather than by the government. Date of murder(s): Runyon was convicted in a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by a Navy officers wifeand her boyfriend, who wanted her husband Cory Voss killedfor his $500,000 life insurance policy. Sentenced to death on September 22, 2006. Convicted and sentenced to death for a drug related kidnapping and rape resulting in death. Had defense attorneys been aware of this deal, he added, they certainly would have used it to challenge Glorias credibility. He took 12-year-old Lexis Roberts to Louisiana, where he shot her and cut her throat. Agofskywas already serving a life sentence for robbing a Missouri bank along with his brother, Joseph. His death sentence was the first imposed in the modern era of the federal system in Maryland, which abolished the death penalty in 2013. Dustin Higgs, left, pictured with his mother and Alexa Cave Wingate, right, in an early family photo. Convicted of carjacking related homicide of a 63-year-old woman and her 9-year-old granddaughter. For the past 20 years, Wingate has regularly spoken to Higgs on the phone. She said, Hey, Lex, you OK? I said, Yeah, Im fine. She said, Oh. Her body was found in a ravine near Crookston, Minnesota five months later. Hardy shot Groves once in the head on Oct.13, 1994. There have been 50 federal executions carried out since 1927. Gloria complained that hed been incarcerated for nothing, since he was asleep when the women were shot, the investigator wrote in an affidavit. July execution scheduled for Iowa native Dustin Lee Honken, convicted in 2004 of murdering 5. Summary:Mark Issac Snarr, of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Edgar Balthazar Garcia, of Abilene, Texas,were being transported to their cells in a federal Texas prison when the duo slipped from their hand restraints, pulled out homemade knives and stabbed two correction officers. They stolemore than $70,000 before driving him to Oklahoma, where they tied Short to acement-weighted chair and threw himinto Grand Lake, according to the Springfield News-Leader. Video, The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, Lisa Montgomery: Looking for answers in the life of a killer, In Trump's final days, a rush of federal executions, US government death penalty move draws sharp criticism, MasterChef Australia host Jock Zonfrillo dies, Banana artwork in Seoul museum eaten by visitor, NFL player's daughter, aged two, drowns in pool, Trevelyan relative 'would consider' famine payment, Ding becomes China's first male world chess champion, Indian 'killer' elephant relocated to tiger reserve. After receiving his death sentence,prosecutors filed murder charges against Torrez in the murders of 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias in 2005 at aZion park. Tweet. Share page . She finds President Donald Trumps execution spree especially grotesque when contrasted with his clemency record. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. We dont have ads, so we depend on our members 35,000 and counting to help us hold the powerful to account. (Co-defendant of Corey Johnson & Richard Tipton). Its just a feeling of maybe this can slow down your execution. With the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, even a short delay would change everything. I cant afford it, she said. Higgs is scheduled to be executed on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, at the federal prison in Terre Haute. He quickly became still, his pupils visible with his eyelids left partially open. All three worked in local schools and did not fit investigators profile of women whose lives might invite violence, according toa true crime podcastthat recently exploredthe case. On September 6, 2012, Peterson was found guilty of the premeditated murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. I havent lost a child. Trump's Execution Spree Is Not About Him. It's About Us. Manuel Flores: 62788-079 Serving a life sentence Hitman for Juan Raul Garza, who was executed by the federal government in . After robbing and shooting the victims with a stun gun, Lee covered their heads with plastic bags, sealed the bags with duct tape, weighed down each victim with rocks, and threw the family of three into the Illinois Bayou in Arkansas. Summary: Fulks and Bashamcarjacked, kidnapped and killed two women in the midst of a 17-day crime spree after they escaped a county jail in western Kentucky. Shedied on the scene. (Co-defendant of Brandon Basham). 2 of the 3 federal inmates scheduled for execution in January have Summary: The two men were found guilty and given a sentence of death for the fatal shooting of Richard Heflin, a security guard at Lindell Bank & Trust in St. Louis, during a robbery. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. Some members of the execution teams also have also tested positive for the virus. He scouted the couple at the campground in a homemade sniper suit and shot them with a rifle. Now serving a life sentence at. Convicted in 2002 of the 1997 kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman, who had accused Gabrion of rape; Tried federally as victim's body was found on. Trump's execution schedule ends at 13 - arkansasonline.com The three men chased after the women in Higgs van. Weidenfeld hadseen this racist brutality up close in her decades working in Prince Georges County. A woman's loud sobs echoed for several minutes from a room reserved for Higgs' family as his eyes rolled back in his head before he stopped moving. Ortiz's role was limited to being present at the time of the murder. US courts delay all federal executions scheduled this week Benefiel, who was the last man executed from Terre Haute, kidnapped two women in Terre Haute and held them captive. More recently, Wilkinson was excoriatedby a federal judge for presenting false evidence to gain a conviction in a fraud case that was dismissed due to prosecutorial misconduct. BOP: Federal Executions - Federal Bureau of Prisons She was the first woman executed in nearly 70 years. Even if Higgs did not direct Haynes to shoot Chinn, Jackson, and Black, he still would have been eligible for the death penalty undera felony murder prosecution. On October 11, 2000, jurors convicted Higgs. So you didnt hear. Her cousin told her that Higgs had been sentenced to death. I just want them to understand that its not my brother that did it.. I am not responsible for the deaths, he said softly. In 2000, a federal jury in Maryland convicted Higgs of murder and kidnapping in the killings of Tamika Black, 19; Mishann Chinn, 23; and Tanji Jackson. The interstate leads all the way to Baltimore, where Wingates brother, Dustin Higgs, had been sentenced to die more than 20 years earlier. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Her time of death was 1:31 a.m., more than seven hours after her originally scheduled time of execution . The only woman on death row, Lisa Montgomery, was executed Wednesday for killing a pregnant woman, then cutting the baby out of her womb and claiming the infant as her own. State of conviction: District Court of North Dakota. I had to find a way to take care of her, to get a skill, and my family didnt have money for me to go to college. Following a year stationed in South Korea, she moved to Washington, D.C. and Higgs followed. ", "The government completed its unprecedented slaughter of 13 human beings tonight by killing Dustin Higgs, a Black man who never killed anyone," Nolan said. "I'd like to say I am an innocent man," he said. 2023 BBC. Her kids, then ages 8 and 10, came to ask what was wrong. Co-defendants Richard Tipton and James H. Roane Jr. remain on death row. Higgs arrived on federal death row in January 2001, just five months before the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan agreed, delaying the executions on the grounds that killingthe men nowwould violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Convicted of abusing, sexually molesting, and murdering his 2-year-old daughter at. They took the cell keys from a guards belt and unlocked the cell of fellow inmate Gabriel Rhone. Gloria said Jackson made threats as she left the apartment with the other women and appeared to write down the license plate number of Higgs van, angering him. This case resulted in the exoneration of an innocent man and the conviction of the real killer, U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said at the time. That is one of many reasons that our bond is so strong today. He awaits a resentencing. After giving birth to her own daughter in 1990, Wingate enlisted in the Army, the best of a limited set of options. By MICHAEL TARM and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN January 15, 2021. Battle wasalreadyserving a life sentence for themurder of his wife, a U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Minnie Foreman. (Co-defendant of Billie Allen). Rhone later died. Former New Orleans police officer who ordered the murder of a young woman who witnessed his beating of a witness. Kunzelman reported from College Park, Maryland. Higgs, the last federal inmate facing execution before President Donald Trump leaves office was sentenced to death for the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge in 1996. Sentenced to death in 1993; died in 2019 of natural causes. ((Federal Bureau of Prisons/Community Federal Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania via AP)), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news, federal death sentences carried out under Trump since 2020. But her victim's family and friends say the murder committed by Montgomery was so horrific that she deserved to be put to death regardless of her mental health. The men allegedly demanded a total of more than $5.5 million from relatives and associates, and received more than $1 million from victim's relatives. He helped me so much, Wingate recalled. The family had moved to PalmBeach County weeks before the murders. Her . When I then asked Mr. Gloria whether that meant that his statements and testimony concerning the events that occurred at the crime scene were not true, the investigator continued, Mr. (Reuters) - The U.S. government carried out the 13th and final federal execution under President Donald Trump's administration early on Saturday, days before his successor. The bodies were tied with weights and dumped in a reservoir near. Executioners sanitized accounts of deaths in federal cases Neither did Wilkinson, who prosecuted Higgss case alongside Johnston and still works for the Justice Department. Explore in 3D: The dazzling crown that makes a king. For a time, their plans for the future were intertwined. (AP) The Trump administration early Saturday 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. Prosecutors said the victims were killed regardless of whether the ransoms were paid. I was not scared of him. The kidnapping occurred in Washington, DC and the murder was committed in Maryland. Montgomery, the only woman under a federal death sentence, was being held in a small room adjacent to it. Three people died in the bombingsand hundreds injured. State of conviction:Southern District of Ohio. Yet such red flags are often not enough to stop an execution. Summary: Lawrence shot and killed Columbus police officer Bryan Hurst during an attempted bank robbery. Lawrence had been convicted of at least two other bank robberies in Ohio. Trump administration carries out 13th and final execution Convicted for his involvement in a carjacking and the deaths of a couple visiting Texas. That opinion is supported by 41 current and former lawyers as well as human rights groups like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Bill Benefiel's crimes continue to shock people. On November 5, 2003, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri found Purkey guilty of kidnapping a child resulting in the childs death, and he was sentenced to death. As the lethal injection of pentobarbital flowed into his veins, he looked toward family members, waved with his fingers and said, "I love you." Her lawyers argued that she had been born brain-damaged and was too mentally ill to be executed. Whether the ransom was paid or not, the pair murdered the people they kidnapped, tied their bodies with weights anddumped in the New Melones Reservoir near Yosemite National Park, the Associated Press reported. Murdered an Oklahoma State Trooper during a drug bust. Ill do the makeup and Ill do the embalming and all that, Wingate said. When Higgs called her after the charges were filed, I remember him saying, You know I didnt. And I said, You dont even have to finish that sentence. I consider receiving a free pass on a murder charge to be an extraordinary benefit for a witness, he said.
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