Higgs, meanwhile, received nine death sentences. Ultimately, Haynes-the shooter-was sentenced to life in prison after the first trial. The cases relied heavily on the testimony of Gloria, who had initially told police he was asleep during the shooting but eventually talked about what had happened in exchange for leniency. In the second, they claimed Haynes was scared of Higgs, who supposedly insisted Haynes commit the shootings. In the first trial, they argued Haynes was a calculated and cold blooded killer operating of his own volition. Both Haynes and Higgs faced murder trials, in which prosecutors advanced conflicting theories. While Maryland does not have the death penalty, the crime had technically been committed on federal land, opening the door for prosecutors to seek execution. The men followed the women out, offering a ride back home to Washington D.C., but instead drove them to a secluded area in the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge, where Haynes shot and killed all three of them. According to prosecutors, Jackson and Higgs argued after she rebuffed one of his advances, prompting the women to leave. The women had spent the night partying at Higgs’ apartment along with him and two of his friends, Willis Haynes and Victor Gloria. There is also no dispute that Dustin Higgs was not the one who shot them. There is no disputing the horror of the January 1996 murders of Tanji Jackson, Tamika Black and Mishann Chinn. “There are many people who have been on death row for longer (than Higgs).” “It is kind of a random selection process and that should not be a part of our death penalty scheme or jurisprudence,” said Shawn Nolan, the attorney representing Higgs, who also works with other death row inmates. The prisoners selected were seemingly calibrated to be the least likely to prompt public outcry: The first wave were primarily inmates convicted of crimes against children the second, those convicted of multiple murders. Three of the ten killings so far were carried out after Trump lost the November election-the first federal executions during a lame duck period in more than a century. “And we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.” “The Justice Department upholds the rule of law,” Barr declared in July. Higgs had been on death row for 20 years when, in late November, the Trump Administration announced its intent to kill him, four months after the administration resumed federal executions, a move championed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr. But, it is remarkable that with all this chaos going on with the Trump administration, that they are still so eager to move forward with three so-called executions.” “I doubt that Trump will lose his presidency in the final days. “I have been watching all the madness going on in D.C…” Higgs wrote to me last Thursday.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |