Execution would be 13th, last under Trump

The last federal inmate facing execution before President Donald Trump leaves office was sentenced to death for the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge, a crime that led to a life sentence for the man who fired the fatal shots.

Dustin Higgs, 48, who was scheduled to be executed on Friday at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., says nobody alleges he pulled the trigger. His lawyers have argued it is “arbitrary and inequitable” to execute Higgs while Willis Haynes, the man who fatally shot the women in 1996, was spared a death sentence.

The federal judge who presided over Higgs’ trial two decades ago says he “merits little compassion.”

“He received a fair trial and was convicted and sentenced to death by a unanimous jury for a despicable crime,” U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte wrote last month.

Higgs would be the 13th federal inmate executed since July, when Trump ended a 17-year hiatus on the federal death penalty.