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A federal dying-row inmate scheduled to be executed days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration has tested good for the coronavirus, his attorney said Thursday.

Dustin John Higgs is one particular of quite a few people on federal dying row established to be executed all through the presidential transition, which has drawn condemnation from attorneys and critics who argue towards carrying out their sentenced prior to President Trump, who supports funds punishment, is changed by Biden, who opposes it.

“Today, we were being informed by the Bureau of Prisons that Dustin Higgs has analyzed optimistic for COVID-19,” Shawn Nolan, Higgs’s attorney, reported in a statement. “This is undoubtedly the final result of the super spreader executions that the govt has rushed to undertake in the heart of a international pandemic.”

This news came a week following the Justice Division performed back again-to-back executions at the penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., in which federal dying sentences are carried out. Officers also planned to execute Lisa Montgomery this month, but it was postponed to January immediately after her lawyers stated they contracted the virus following conference with her.

Nolan called on the governing administration to withdraw Higgs’s execution day.

The Bureau of Prisons in a statement Thursday evening stated it could confirm that inmates at the penitentiary’s unique confinement device, which houses the inmates there with federal loss of life sentences, have tested constructive. It did not establish the inmates or specify how numerous of them have analyzed beneficial, nor did the statement confirm that Higgs was amid these who tested optimistic.

“Due to pending litigation and privateness passions, we decline to present further details,” the bureau’s statement mentioned. A spokesman declined to say when the checks were being performed and the beneficial results arrived back again.

Through a make contact with tracing investigation, a prisons personnel assigned to the distinctive confinement device was also located to be positive, the bureau reported. That man or woman experienced no call with staff members associated in recent federal executions, they stated.

“While a variety of inmates have tested optimistic for COVID-19 at USP Terre Haute in recent weeks, several of these inmates are asymptomatic or exhibiting gentle indications,” the assertion said. “Our optimum precedence stays guaranteeing the security of workers and inmates.”

Asked if the bureau sought to have his execution date moved, a spokesman reported only that he was scheduled to be executed on Jan. 15, the date introduced by Legal professional Standard William P. Barr previous thirty day period.

The federal authorities had not carried out any executions because 2003 until this year. Barr last calendar year declared options to resume executions, and because July the Justice Section has carried out 10 death sentences.

3 added federal executions are established for the week in advance of the Jan. 20 inauguration, with Higgs’s becoming the previous at present scheduled before Biden will take business office. Higgs was sentenced to dying for his position in the kidnapping and killing of 3 girls. Nolan has stated it would be incorrect to execute Higgs while his mate, who in fact shot the women, was convicted of murder but not sentenced to death.