30 Facts About Dustin Higgs

Dustin John Higgs was an American man who was executed by the United States federal government, having been convicted and sentenced to death for the January 1996 murders of three women in Maryland.

The main contention was that Higgs did not personally kill any of the three victims, but waited in a vehicle nearby.

The prosecution argued that although Dustin Higgs did not kill anyone, he was the ringleader, ordering and bullying Haynes.

In 2012, Haynes swore in an affidavit that Dustin Higgs did not force or threaten him into killing any of the victims.

Dustin Higgs was executed via lethal injection on January 16,2021, becoming the thirteenth and final person executed by the federal government during the first presidency of Donald Trump, when federal executions returned after a 17-year hiatus.

Dustin Higgs remains the most recent person executed by the United States federal government and the last before President Joe Biden's 2024 near-complete commutation of remaining federal death row inmates.

When Dustin Higgs was 8, his mother was diagnosed with cancer.

Dustin Higgs drove his van to the side of the road where the women were walking.

The women got into the back of the vehicle and Dustin Higgs drove out of Laurel.

Dustin Higgs drove his van along a state road on to the Patuxent Research Refuge and stopped the vehicle near the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

Dustin Higgs was first questioned about them in March 1996 at his apartment.

Dustin Higgs acknowledged that he had known Jackson and had talked to her the night before she died.

Dustin Higgs was arrested and his apartment searched, as he was suspected of an unrelated bank fraud violation.

Dustin Higgs was sentenced to 17 years in a federal prison.

Dustin Higgs was already in custody at the time, serving his 17-year trafficking sentence.

Dustin Higgs's testimony was the main piece of evidence presented during Higgs' trial.

The prosecution's version of events was that Dustin Higgs got into a heated argument with Tanji Jackson at his apartment on the evening of January 26,1996.

Dustin Higgs did not drive the correct way back to Washington, DC, and instead drove to the Patuxent Research Refuge.

Dustin Higgs pulled over at a secluded location and ordered the women out of the van.

Dustin Higgs witnessed Haynes shoot one of the women in the chest.

Dustin Higgs' lawyer said he only learned of the witnesses after reviewing Haynes' trial record, by which time Dustin Higgs had already been sentenced to death.

On October 26,2000, Dustin Higgs was sentenced to death by an all-male jury, becoming the first person from Maryland to be sentenced to death in the federal court system.

Dustin Higgs was formally sentenced to death by a federal judge on January 3,2001.

Dustin Higgs was released on February 4,2006, serving a total of just over five years and two months in prison.

Dustin Higgs was tried by the federal government in addition to state of Maryland.

The execution was controversial, in part because Dustin Higgs was executed during a lame-duck period.

Dustin Higgs had tested positive for COVID-19 a few weeks prior.

Dustin Higgs was the thirteenth and final person executed by the United States federal government during the first presidency of Donald Trump.

Dustin Higgs remains the most recent person executed by the federal government as a whole.

Dustin Higgs is buried at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery in his hometown of Poughkeepsie, New York.