Her earlier injunctions were overturned by higher courts, and the Trump administration has executed 10 men so far. Judge Chutkan has previously delayed earlier executions after ruling there would be undue suffering even in inmates without COVID-19 and that the government’s lethal-injection protocol broke drug safety laws. His administration also plans to execute the only woman on federal death row, Lisa Montgomery, on Jan. Republican President Donald Trump resumed federal executions last year after a 17-year hiatus. PETITIONERS’ AS-APPLIED CHALLENGES TO THE 2019 PROTOCOL Less than a month before their scheduled executions, both Petitioners tested positive for COVID-19. “Being waterboarded to death violates the Eighth Amendment.” Under the 2019 Protocol, Respondents scheduled Petitioner Corey Johnson’s execution for January 14, 2021, and Petitioner Dustin Higgs’s execution for January 15, 2021. Life Inside Perspectives from those who work and live in the criminal justice system. They were all friends of mine who became casualties of the Trump administration’s execution spree shortly before he left office. Hicks’ COVID diagnosis, the lethal injection protocol is essentially going to waterboard them to death,” Alex Kursman, a lawyer representing Higgs, told the court. Next came Orlando Hall, followed by Brandon Bernard, Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs. There could be a period of several minutes in which the men experience drowning as their lungs filled with bloody fluids - a pulmonary edema - before the drug rendered them insensate or killed them, the lawyers argued, calling it a form of torture. Condemned murderers Cory Johnson and Dustin Higgs were scheduled to die on 14 and 15 January respectively at an execution chamber in a prison at Terre Haute, in Indiana. Lawyers for the two men, citing their own medical experts and an X-ray of Higgs’ lungs showing injuries from COVID-19, said at the teleconference hearing that the damage in their lungs would mean the delicate tissues inside would rupture more quickly after lethal doses of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate, had been administered. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington that any lung damage would not lead to the sort of inordinate pain that would breach the ban on cruel or unusual punishment in the U.S. The Justice Department, citing several medical experts, argued before U.S. 20, has promised to seek to end the federal death penalty. Dustin Higgs in 1996 kidnapped three women after a failed triple date, drove them onto federal land, and handed his gun to a co-conspirator who shot them dead - a crime for which Higgs received nine death sentences. If their lawyers succeed, it could be the rare instance where contracting COVID-19 has proved a lifesaver: Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, who is to be inaugurated on Jan. Both men are being held on death row at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Department of Justice announced last month that Corey Johnson, 52, and Dustin Higgs, 48, had been diagnosed with COVID-19 but that it would proceed with their executions set for Jan. Johnsons execution and Fridays scheduled execution of Dustin Higgs are the last before next weeks inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who opposes the. FILE PHOTO: The sun sets on the Federal Corrections Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.
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