Federal Execution Post-Mortem: The Final Three Carried Out in January 2021
By Jessica Constant, DPRP Intern
[Note: This article is an update to our series on the 2020-2021 federal execution spree.]
In the waning days of his term, Donald Trump and his administration carried out three final federal executions. The executions of Lisa Montgomery, Corey Johnson, and Dustin Higgs brought the total number of executions carried out by the Federal Government in the past year to thirteen, a rate and number of executions unprecedented in modern times. Continuing the trend seen in the prior ten federal executions, the announcement of the final three execution dates spurred individual litigation that spanned jurisdictions.