Dustin Higgs

Higgs was executed via lethal injection on January 16, 2021, becoming the thirteenth and final person executed by the federal government during the presidency of Donald Trump, when federal executions returned after a 17-year hiatus. Trump's presidency ended only four days later. Higgs remains the most recent person executed by the United States federal government. A moratorium on federal executions is currently in place. It was imposed by President Joe Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021.

At 1:23 a.m. on January 16, 2021, Higgs, 48, was executed by lethal injection of pentobarbital at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. His last words were "I'd like to say I am an innocent man. I did not order the murders." He mentioned each of the three murder victims by name. He became the third and last inmate to be executed by the U.S. federal government in January, after convicted murderers Lisa Marie Montgomery and Corey Johnson, who were executed on January 13 and 14, respectively.

Multiple controversies surround Higgs' case. Firstly, he was sentenced to death despite not personally shooting or killing any of the three women. The case against him was mainly built on the testimonies of Gloria and Haynes, who had both cut deals and changed their stories multiple times. The fact the murders were committed on federal land further complicated things. Higgs was tried by the federal government rather than by the state of Maryland. Had the murders occurred farther down the road, the women would not have been killed on the Patuxent Research Refuge, and Higgs would have been tried by the state of Maryland instead of by the federal government. If he had been tried by the state of Maryland, based on state law, he would not have been eligible for the death penalty. The state of Maryland also abolished the death penalty in 2013, with all remaining death row inmates resentenced to life without parole. Prior to the abolition, the last execution in Maryland occurred in 2005, when Wesley Baker was executed for the June 1991 murder of 49-year-old Jane Tyson.

The main contention was that Higgs did not personally kill any of the three victims, but waited in a vehicle nearby. The man who shot them, Willis Mark Haynes, was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole plus 45 years. The prosecution argued that although Higgs did not kill anyone, he was the ringleader, ordering and bullying Haynes. Higgs and his defense team maintained his innocence to the end, arguing that although he was involved, he was merely a witness, and was set up by Haynes and another witness, Victor Gloria. In 2012, Haynes swore in an affidavit that Higgs did not force or threaten him into killing any of the victims.

Higgs' lawyer said he only learned of the witnesses after reviewing Haynes' trial record, by which time Higgs had already been sentenced to death. The evidence would supposedly have made both Haynes and Higgs equally culpable in the eyes of the jury, and the failure to provide the statements violated the Brady rule. According to the defense, both Gloria and Haynes repeatedly changed their stories, with Haynes admitting in 2012 in a sworn affidavit that Higgs had not forced or bullied him into doing anything, something the prosecution had claimed at Higgs' trial.

On November 22, Gloria was sentenced to eighty-four months in a federal prison. He was released on February 4, 2006, serving a total of just over five years and two months in prison.

After this revelation, Higgs and Haynes were tried separately in 2000. Gloria pleaded guilty to being an accessory-after-the-fact to the killings, and in exchange for testimony against Higgs and Haynes, was sentenced to seven years in prison. His testimony was the main piece of evidence presented in Higgs' trial.

Ultimately, Higgs and Haynes were found guilty of all of the charges. The jury spared Haynes's life. On August 24, 2000, he was sentenced to nine concurrent life terms without parole, plus 45 years. The federal judge at Haynes' trial claimed he had shown no remorse for the killings. As of June 2022, he was incarcerated at United States Penitentiary, Beaumont.

In October 1998, Gloria and Haynes were arrested on unrelated drug charges. After being questioned, police learned of more details surrounding the murders. On December 21, Higgs and Haynes were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of first degree murder, kidnapping resulting in death, and use of a firearm during a crime of violence. Higgs was already in custody at the time, serving his 17-year trafficking sentence. The government announced they would seek death sentences for both Higgs and Haynes.

The murders went unsolved for nearly three years. Higgs was first questioned about them in March 1996 at his apartment. He acknowledged that he had known Jackson and had talked to her the night before she died. He was arrested and his apartment searched, as he was suspected of an unrelated bank fraud violation. Police found cocaine and firearms in his apartment. On May 12, 1997, he pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine. He was sentenced to 17 years in a federal prison.

On the evening of January 26, 1996, Higgs, Willis Haynes, and Victor Gloria drove from Higgs' apartment in Laurel, Maryland, to Washington, D.C., to pick up Tamika Black, Tanji Jackson, and Mishann Chinn. Dates had been arranged for each of the men and women and the groups had agreed to meet and hang out together. The six of them traveled in Higgs' vehicle, a blue Mazda MPV van, and returned to his apartment to drink alcohol, smoke marijuana, and listen to music. The partying continued into the early hours of January 27.

The prosecution's version of events was that Higgs got into a heated argument with Tanji Jackson at his apartment on the evening of January 26, 1996. Jackson had supposedly taken a knife from the kitchen and threatened Higgs after she rejected his alleged sexual advances towards her. After the argument, the women left the apartment enraged. According to Gloria, Jackson made some kind of threat as she left the apartment. As Higgs watched the women leave, he saw Jackson appear to write down his license plate number. According to Gloria, this angered Higgs, who was concerned she knew people who may retaliate against him.

Dustin John Higgs (March 10, 1972 – January 16, 2021) was an American man who was executed by the United States federal government, having been convicted and sentenced to death in 2000 for his role in the January 1996 murders of three women in Maryland. Tamika Black, Tanji Jackson, and Mishann Chinn were all shot and killed near the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, on the Patuxent Research Refuge in Prince George's County, Maryland. Because this is classed as federal land, he was tried by the federal government rather than by the state of Maryland. His case, conviction, and execution were the subject of multiple controversies.

Higgs was born in Poughkeepsie, New York on March 10, 1972, to Alfonso Higgs and Marilyn M. Bennett Higgs (1945–1982). When Dustin was 8, his mother was diagnosed with cancer. She died two years later, in 1982. Friends and relatives saw a big change in his mood after this. He moved to Laurel, Maryland in 1991. By 1996, he was married and had a son.