![]() That stay, issued on November 19, was effective until December 31. Judge Moss had issued a stay of Montgomery’s initial December 8 execution date because her attorneys contracted COVID-19 as a result of traveling to visit Montgomery and could not complete their work on her clemency petition. ![]() Judge Messitte wrote “the Court believes it lacks the authority to do as the Government asks and will deny the Government’s motion.” Higgs’ lawyer, Shawn Nolan, said, “We believe this order will bar the execution if it stands.” ![]() Without waiting for a decision on that motion, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) then scheduled his execution to take place at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Messitte to amend Higgs’ sentencing order to direct that he be executed under Indiana law. Though Higgs was sentenced to death in 2001, federal prosecutors waited until August 2020 to ask U.S. Higgs was sentenced to death in Maryland in 2001, but the state abolished the death penalty in 2013 and federal officials failed to take steps necessary to amend the sentencing order before scheduling his execution. Federal law states that federal executions are to be carried out under the laws of the state in which the death sentence is imposed or of another state designated at the time of sentencing. Meanwhile, a federal district judge in Maryland effectively halted the Dustin Higgs’ execution from moving forward by declining to modify the original judgment of sentence against Higgs. The court delayed its ruling from going into effect until the full circuit had an opportunity to consider the case and gave Montgomery’s lawyers one day to submit her request for rehearing. District Court Judge Randolph Moss erred in his Decemruling that the BOP violated federal execution regulations by rescheduling Montgomery’s execution while a pre-existing stay of execution was still in place. District Court for the District of Columbia had halted Lisa Montgomery’s execution on Christmas eve, a three-judge federal appeals panel reinstated her execution date subject to review by the full appeals court. ![]() On New Years Day 2021, eight days after the U.S. At the same time, the scheduled Januexecution of Dustin Higgs (pictured, right) hit a snag when it appeared that the Department of Justice had failed to make arrangements to carry it out in the proper location and under the proper governing law. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed a district court ruling that had vacated her execution date. The scheduled Januexecution of Lisa Montgomery (pictured, left) appeared to be back on after the U.S. One week before the federal government intends to put three prisoners to death, two of the scheduled executions remain in doubt after rulings by federal courts in Washington, D.C.
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