The Trump administration completed its 13th and final execution in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Dustin Higgs, who was convicted in 2000 for ordering the killings of three women, died of lethal injection at 1:23 a.m. on Saturday morning at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, according to the Associated Press.
Higgs maintained his innocence up until the time of his death, and he repeated the names of each of the victims as he said his final words.
“I’d like to say I am an innocent man. … I am not responsible for the deaths,” he said. “I did not order the murders.”
As the drugs were injected into him, Higgs waved with his fingers to the room reserved for relatives and lawyers, and he said, “I love you,” while loud sobs from a woman could be heard.
He was convicted for the kidnapping and murder of three women in 1996. At the time, Higgs was rejected by one of the women at a party, offered the women a ride home, and instead, he drove them to a secluded road and ordered his friend to kill them, which he did by shooting two in the chest and one in the back of the head. The victims were Tamika Black, 19; Mishann Chinn, 23; and Tanji Jackson, 21.
“They are now going to go through the pain we experienced,” one of the victim’s sisters said in a statement. “When the day is over, your death will not bring my sister and the other victims back. This is not closure.”
Higgs was the last in a series of federal executions that were given the green light by former Attorney General William Barr. The executions have continued through the lame-duck period of President Trump’s term in office as President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated on Wednesday.
Biden has said that he opposes the death penalty and will work to end its use when he takes office.
