US Executions | My Crime Library

Dustin Higgs Federal Execution

Dustin Higgs was executed by the Federal Government for a series of murders. According to court documents Dustin Higgs was convicted of the kidnapping and murders of three women in 1996. Since his arrest Dustin Higgs has maintained his innocence. Dustin Higgs would be executed by lethal injection on January 16, 2001

Dustin Higgs More News

Dustin John Higgs was executed in the early hours of Saturday morning becoming the 13th and last federal death row inmate to be executed since the Justice Department restarted federal executions in July 2019. He had been convicted of kidnapping and murdering three women in 1996.Higgs maintained his innocence until his death, according to a pool report.The tone of his voice was calm but defiant as he said his last words, “I’d like to say I am an innocent man,” he said, mentioning the three women by name. “I did not order the murders,” the report said.Higgs’ victims were Tamika Black, 19; Tanji Jackson, 21; and Mishann Chinn, 23.Higgs’ execution went forward despite his attorney, Shawn Nolan’s appeal to delay the proceeding because of Higgs’ Covid-19 diagnosis. Nolan also argued that Higgs was unfairly sentenced, since the actual gunman is serving a life sentence.

Higgs’ execution was initially scheduled for the 92nd birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.King’s oldest son, Martin Luther King III, wrote an op-ed on Thursday in The Washington Post calling for the end to executions by invoking his father’s words from 1957 when asked if God approves of the death penalty. “I do not think that God approves the death penalty for any crime … capital punishment is against the better judgment of modern criminology and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God,” King said.

In January 1996, Higgs and two friends drove to Washington, DC, to pick up Black, Jackson, and Chinn, whom Higgs had invited to his apartment in Laurel, Maryland, according to a Department of Justice statement. At the apartment, Jackson rebuffed an advance by Higgs and the women left. Higgs offered the women a ride back to DC, but instead drove to a secluded area in the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge, the statement added.He ordered the women out of the vehicle, gave a gun to one of the friends, and said, “better make sure they’re dead.” The other man shot Black and Jackson in the chest and back, and shot Chinn in the back of the head, killing all three women, the statement said.

In 2000, a Maryland jury found Higgs guilty of numerous federal offenses, including three counts of first-degree premeditated murder, three counts of first-degree felony murder, and three counts of kidnapping resulting in death, and unanimously recommended nine death sentences, which the court imposed, the statement said.Higgs’ convictions and sentences were affirmed on appeal nearly 17 years ago, and his initial round of collateral challenges failed nearly eight years ago, the statement added.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/16/us/dustin-higgs-executed/index.html

Dustin Higgs Execution Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXNNY97j-uk

Corey Johnson Federal Execution

Corey Johnson was executed by the Federal Government for a series of murders in Virginia. According to court documents Corey Johnson would commit a total of seven murders in Richmond Virginia in order to further his hold on drug trafficking in the city. Corey Johnson whose intelligence was considered to be borderline and was fighting COVID 19 at the time of his execution was put to death by lethal injection.

Corey Johnson More News

Corey Johnson was executed by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, and was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m. ET on Thursday.Johnson was sentenced to die after he was convicted of killing seven people in 1992 as a part of the drug trade in Virginia. The weeks preceding his execution were defined by a tense legal battle after he contracted Covid-19 while on death row.In his final statement, Johnson apologized for his crimes and told the families of the victims that he hoped they would find peace. He also thanked the staff at the prison, the prison’s chaplain, his minister and his legal team.”I would have said I was sorry before, but I didn’t know how. I hope you will find peace,” he said, according to a statement released by his lawyers. “To my family, I have always loved you, and your love has made me real. On the streets, I was looking for shortcuts, I had some good role models, I was side tracking, I was blind and stupid. I am not the same man that I was.”The Supreme Court denied a last-ditch effort late Thursday by Johnson’s legal team that leaned on claims of an intellectual disability and his Covid-19 diagnosis, arguing that his infection paired with a lethal injection would amount to a cruel and unusual punishment.That appeal came after an appellate court on Wednesday tossed out a lower court’s decision to stay the executions of Johnson and another death row inmate who contracted the virus, Dustin Higgs, whose execution is scheduled to take place Friday.”The government must stop trying to execute Corey Johnson while he is still recovering from the COVID-19 infection he contracted as a result of the government’s own irresponsibility in carrying out executions during the pandemic,” Donald Salzman, an attorney for Johnson, had said in a statement earlier Thursday.”There is no principled reason not to wait until the injunction expires in March to assess whether Mr. Johnson’s lungs have healed sufficiently that he will not suffer excruciating pain during an execution.”After Johnson’s death, his legal team mourned his passing in a statement, saying that he should never have been executed.”We loved Corey Johnson, and we knew him as a gentle soul who never broke a rule in prison and kept trying, despite his limitations, to pass the GED. His family and loved ones are in our hearts,” his attorneys said. “We wish also to say that the fact Corey Johnson should never have been executed cannot diminish the pain and loss experienced by the families of the victims in this case. We wish them peace and healing.”Johnson’s legal team has also said that he has an IQ of 69, which would be lower than one standard offered by the Supreme Court as a guide for states weighing whether such an execution met the Constitution’s cruel and unusual punishment standards.”He is a person with intellectual disability who cannot constitutionally be executed,” Salzman argued Thursday morning. “The government should withdraw Corey’s execution date, or President Trump should grant him clemency.”According to the US Justice Department, Johnson and several co-conspirators were partners between 1989 and 1992 in a “large drug-trafficking conspiracy” based in Richmond, Virginia.As part of their operation, the department said, Johnson murdered seven people over “perceived slights or rivalry in the drug trade” — Peyton Johnson, Louis Johnson, Bobby Long, Dorothy Armstrong, Anthony Carter, Linwood Chiles and Curtis Thorne. Johnson said each name in his final statement, saying, “I want these names to be remembered.”Johnson was found guilty of seven counts of capital murder in 1993, with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia jury unanimously recommending seven death sentences.Thursday’s execution, six days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, coincides with a new push from more than three dozen members of Congress for Biden’s incoming administration to prioritize abolishing the death penalty in all jurisdictions.While Biden has pledged to abolish the federal death penalty and to give incentives to states to stop seeking death sentences as a part of his criminal justice plan, 40 members of Congress want to make sure the practice ends on his first day in office.As part of his final words, Johnson made mention of his last meal.”The pizza and strawberry shake were wonderful, but I didn’t get the jelly-filled donuts that I ordered,” he said. “What’s with that? This should be fixed.”

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/14/politics/corey-johnson-executed/index.html

Corey Johnson Execution Video

John Falk Texas Death Row

John Falk was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a prison murder. According to court documents John Falk and Jerry Duane Martin, were attempting to escape when they would run over Texas Department of Criminal Justice employee Susan Canfield who was on a horse. John Falk and Jerry Martin were convicted and sentenced to death. Jerry Martin would be executed by the State of Texas in 2013.

Texas Death Row Inmates List

Jerry Falk 2021 Information

Name	Falk, John Ray Jr.
TDCJ Number	999605
Date of Birth	11/19/1966
Date Received	03/01/2017
Age (when Received)	50
Education Level (Highest Grade Completed)	8
Date of Offense	09/24/2007
	Age (at the time of Offense)	40
	County	Angelina (Change of venue from Walker)
	Race	White
	Gender	Male
	Hair Color	Brown
	Height (in Feet and Inches)	5′ 10″
	Weight (in Pounds)	200
	Eye Color	Brown
	Native County	Harris
	Native State	Texas

John Falk More News

John Ray Falk Jr. was sentenced to die for his role in the murder of a correctional officer during an attempted escape from a Huntsville-area prison more than nine years ago.

An Angelina County jury deliberated for 28 minutes this morning before reaching a decision following closing arguments. Falk, who chose to represent himself, pleaded guilty to capital murder last Thursday for the slaying of Texas Department of Criminal Justice employee Susan Canfield of New Waverly.

The jury had the option to give Falk the death penalty or sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Falk and another inmate, Jerry Duane Martin, ran away from a work detail at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville on Sept. 24, 2007. Canfield was killed while trying to prevent the escape when her horse was struck by a stolen truck driven by Martin in the garage area of the city of Huntsville Service Center adjacent to the prison.

The inmates were apprehended that day a few miles from the prison.

Martin was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2009 by a Leon County jury for Canfield’s murder. He was executed in 2013 after waiving his right to an appeal.

https://www.itemonline.com/news/falk-gets-death-penalty-for-correctional-officers-slaying/article_fba5feaa-fea5-11e6-8070-fb0eb4f1219b.html

John Grant Oklahoma Death Row

John Grant was sentenced to death by the State of Oklahoma for a prison murder. According to court documents John Grant would murder Gay Carter, who was stabbed 16 times at Dick Connor Correctional Center in Hominy. John Grant would be convicted and sentenced to death.

Oklahoma Death Row Inmate List

John Grant 2021 Information

Gender: Male

Race: Black

Height: 5 ft 11 in

Weight: 157 lbs

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Brown

OK DOC#: 102816

Birth Date: 4/12/1961

Current Facility: OKLAHOMA STATE PENITENTIARY, MCALE

Reception Date: 12/30/1980

John Grant More News

On November 13, 1998, Grant savagely and repeatedly stabbed Gay Carter, a food service supervisor at the Connor Correction Center in Hominy, Oklahoma. Grant used a prison-made “shank” similar to a sharpened screwdriver. Grant was serving a total of one-hundred thirty (130) years for four separate armed robberies and had been in prison for about twenty years prior to this offense. On a previous stay at Connor Correctional Center, Grant had worked in the kitchen and he knew Carter; however, Grant lost this job because he was fighting with another inmate.

¶ 3 The morning of and the morning before this murder, Grant and Carter argued over the breakfast tray served to Grant. The previous morning Grant told Carter, “I’ll get you bitch,” and the morning of the murder Grant stated, “Your mine.” Inmates Jerry James and Ronald Kuykendall, who held jobs in the dining area, witnessed these arguments.

¶ 4 After the last argument, James and Kuykendall saw Grant loitering in a storage area where cleaning supplies were kept, adjacent to the main dining area. Carter left the dining area to go to another building where the kitchen was located. When she returned, Grant grabbed her and pulled her into a mop closet. Inside the closet, Grant stabbed Carter numerous times in the chest while holding her mouth closed.

¶ 5 Witnesses summoned Sergeant Daniel Gomez, the first Correctional Officer to arrive. Gomez saw Grant still struggling with Carter. Grant then stood up and faced Gomez, looked at him with a vacant stare, and ran across the dining hall to the storage room, while still carrying the shank in his hand. Grant shut the door, closing himself inside.

¶ 6 After Grant left the mop closet, medical personnel arrived to aid Carter. They found that she was not breathing, and they could not find any vital signs. Carter was transported to the hospital, but efforts to revive her were unsuccessful. Medical Examiner Robert Hemphill determined that Carter died as a result of sixteen stab wounds. Carter’s aorta was punctured, causing rapid blood loss resulting in her death.

¶ 7 The storage room to where Grant fled, has a wire mesh ceiling through which Correctional Officer Tony Reeves observed Grant. Grant ignored orders to lie down on the floor. Grant held the shank to his chest and ran into the wall, apparently in an attempt to stab himself. A special team of correctional officers entered the storage room and Grant made stabbing motions toward the officers. The officers were able to subdue Grant with the use of an electrical shock device.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ok-court-of-criminal-appeals/1291074.html

John Grant Execution

Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for the 1998 stabbing death of a prison cafeteria worker, the state’s first lethal injection following a six-year moratorium.

John Marion Grant, 60, who was strapped to a gurney inside the execution chamber, began convulsing and vomiting after the first drug was administered. Several minutes later, two members of the execution team wiped the vomit from his face and neck.

Before the curtain was raised to allow witnesses to see into the execution chamber, Grant could be heard yelling, “Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” He delivered a stream of profanities before the lethal injection started. He was declared unconscious about 15 minutes after the first of three drugs was administered and declared dead about six minutes after that, at 4:21 p.m.

Grant was the first inmate to be executed since a series of flawed lethal injections in 2014 and 2015. He was serving a 130-year prison sentence for several armed robberies when witnesses say he dragged prison cafeteria worker Gay Carter into a mop closet and stabbed her 16 times with a homemade shank. He was sentenced to die in 1999.

Oklahoma moved forward with the lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, lifted stays of execution that were put in place on Wednesday for Grant and another death row inmate, Julius Jones, by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The state’s Pardon and Parole Board twice denied Grant’s request for clemency, including a 3-2 vote this month to reject a recommendation that his life be spared.

Oklahoma had one of the nation’s busiest death chambers until problems in 2014 and 2015 led to a de facto moratorium. Richard Glossip was just hours away from being executed in September 2015 when prison officials realized they received the wrong lethal drug. It was later learned the same wrong drug had been used to execute an inmate in January 2015.

The drug mix-ups followed a botched execution in April 2014 in which inmate Clayton Lockett struggled on a gurney before dying 43 minutes into his lethal injection – and after the state’s prisons chief ordered executioners to stop.

While the moratorium was in place, Oklahoma moved ahead with plans to use nitrogen gas to execute inmates, but ultimately scrapped that idea and announced last year that it planned to resume executions using the same three-drug lethal injection protocol that was used during the flawed executions. The three drugs are: midazolam, a sedative; vecuronium bromide, a paralytic; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

Oklahoma prison officials recently announced that they had confirmed a source to supply all the drugs needed for Grant’s execution plus six more that are scheduled to take place through March.

“Extensive validations and redundancies have been implemented since the last execution in order to ensure that the process works as intended,” the Department of Corrections said in a statement.

More than two dozen Oklahoma death row inmates are part of a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s lethal injection protocols, arguing that the three-drug method risks causing unconstitutional pain and suffering. A trial is set for early next year.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/10/28/oklahoma-executes-john-grant-lethal-injection/6184529001/

Bobby Joe Long Serial Killer Executed In Florida

Bobby Joe Long was a serial killer and a serial rapist from Florida. Bobby Joe Long would murder at least ten women during a ten month period near Tampa Bay Florida. In this article on My Crime Library we will take a closer look at Bobby Joe Long.

Bobby Joe Long Early Years

Bobby Joe Long was born in Kenova West Virginia on October 14, 1953. According to doctors reports Bobby was born with an extra X chromosome which leads to Klinefelter syndrome which causes extra estrogen to be produced. Long was teased for his large breasts and would undergo a breast reduction when he was a teenager Apparently the relationship with his mother was dysfunctional as he slept in the same bed with her until his teens

Bobby Joe Long would marry his high school girlfriend in 1974 and they had two children together before they divorced in 1980

Bobby Joe Long The Serial Rapist

Before moving to Florida Bobby Joe Long moved to California where during his time there he sexually assaulted and robbed a number of women. According to police Long answered ads in a Penny Saver magazine and when he arrived at the home and the woman was alone she would be sexually assaulted and robbed. By the time police in California figured out who was responsible the Statute of Limitations had expired.

Bobby Joe Long would move to Florida in 1980 and soon after he was pulling a similar move that he did in Florida. Police believed that he had sexually assaulted up to fifty women.

Bobby Joe Long Murders

Starting in 1983 Bobby Joe Long had moved to the Tampa Bay Florida area and soon women began to disappear. According to police Bobby Joe Long would drive around picking up prostitutes and women who were alone. Long would convince them to get into his vehicle where he would then drive to his apartment where the women were tortured, sexually assaulted and murdered. Some of the women were strangled to death and others were fatally stabbed.

Artiss Ann Wick, 20 – killed on March 27, 1984
Ngeun Thi Long, 19 – killed on May 13, 1984
Michelle Denise Simms, 22 – killed on May 27, 1984
Linda Nuttall – assaulted in May 1984; survived
Elizabeth Loudenback, 22 – killed on June 8, 1984
Vicky Marie Elliott, 21 – killed on September 7, 1984
Chanel Devoun Williams, 18 – killed on October 7, 1984
Karen Beth Dinsfriend, 28 – killed on October 14, 1984
Kimberly Kyle Hopps, 22 – killed on October 31, 1984
Lisa McVey, 17 – assaulted on November 3, 1984; survived
Virginia Lee Johnson, 18 – killed on November 6, 1984
Kim Marie Swann, 21 – killed on November 11, 1984

Bobby Joe Long Arrest

One of the last women that Bobby Joe Long attacked was able to get away and describe to police. After taking evidence from the woman they were able to match it to DNA left on other victims. Bobby Joe Long would be arrested outside of a movie theater and charged with the kidnapping and sexual assault of Lisa McVey.

During interrogation by Tampa Bay police Bobby Joe Long would ask for a lawyer however none was provided. Bobby Joe would eventually confess to eight murders.

Evidence at eight of the crime scenes would be matched to fibers found in Long’s vehicle

Bobby Joe Long Trial

Bobby Joe Long presented with an overwhelming amount of evidence agreed to plead guilty to an assortment of charges including eight murders and would be sentenced to twenty six life sentences without the possibility of parole . Part of the reason the plea deal was offered was that Bobby Joe Long confession was ruled inadmissible as he asked for a lawyer and none was given

However Florida prosecutors would charge him with the murder of Michelle Simms in which he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Bobby Joe Long Execution

Bobby Joe Long was executed on May 23, 2019 by lethal injection. Bobby made no final statement and his last meal was roast beef, bacon, french fries and soda.

Bobby Joe Long Videos

Bobby Joe Long More News

It took more than three decades, but convicted serial killer and rapist Bobby Joe Long was executed Thursday evening in Florida as two of his surviving victims looked on.

“I wanted to look him in the eye,” said Lisa McVey Noland, who was 17 when Long kidnapped her early November 3, 1984, as she was riding her bicycle home from work. Long raped her and held her hostage for more 26 hours before letting her go, she said.

“I wanted to be the first person he saw,” Noland said. “Unfortunately, he didn’t open his eyes.”

Bobby Joe Long, 65, was executed at 6:55 p.m. without incident, a Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman told reporters. He had been convicted in the killings of eight women that terrorized the Tampa Bay area in 1984, according to CNN affiliate WFLA, and received a death sentence for the murder of Michelle Simms

“Now, after 35 years, we can say we have some peace of mind, knowing that justice has been served,” said Lula Williams, whose daughter Chanel was among Long’s victims.

After the execution, families of the victims and survivors addressed the media outside the Florida State Prison in Raiford, thanking Gov. Ron DeSantis and the law enforcement officers and prosecutors who they said saw to it that justice was served.

The other survivor, Linda Nuttall, said there was “no describing how this moment would feel.”

She and her husband had placed a classified newspaper ad in 1984 to sell some furniture. Long responded, and when he came to their home, he raped Nuttall while her two young children were in the house, she said.

“It’s just surreal,” Nuttall said. “But it closes another door for me.”

“He got what he deserved,” said Nuttall’s husband, Kevin. “Today’s just another chapter.”

Noland, now a deputy for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, read a victim’s impact statement and asked everyone to remember those who died at Long’s hands. But Noland said she had “no ill will” toward Long and that she had forgiven him.

“God has shown me the only way to really be free when someone bestows injustice against you is complete forgiveness,” she said. “My life changed forever and for the better. I chose not to remain a victim. I chose to live.”

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/us/bobby-joe-long-execution-florida

Category: US Executions