The Supreme Court's conservative majority had earlier rejected a lower court's ruling that the final two scheduled federal executions of Trump's administration be delayed to allow the condemned men to recover from COVID-19. The Justice Department has scheduled the execution of Dustin Higgs, convicted in a separate murder, for Friday evening. Trump, a Republican and a long-standing advocate of capital punishment, oversaw the resumption of federal executions as the coronavirus spread. "If Johnson's death sentence is carried out today, the United States will execute an intellectually disabled person, which is unconstitutional." The Supreme Court also rejected a petition by Johnson's lawyers to delay the execution on these grounds.

Source: bd News24 January 15, 2021 04:52 UTC