The federal inmate who will be executed next month tested positive for COVID-19

A federal prison corridor: the last person to be executed by the Trump administration before the president-elect Joe BidenJoe Biden Booker: COVID-19 relief bill is “far below” the desired pandemic aid for states and Trump communities to nominate Giuliani’s son to the role of the Holocaust Memorial Council . takes office on January 20: he has contracted the coronavirus, according to the Associated Press.

A Dustin attorney John Higgs said Thursday he was informed of his client’s diagnosis. Higgs was convicted of kidnapping and murdering three women in 2000.

The news comes as concern has risen over the rapid spread of COVID-19 in U.S. prisons, including the Terre Haute (Ind.) Complex, where federal executions are taking place, according to the AP.

“This is surely the result of the super-broadcast executions the government has rushed to undertake in the midst of a global pandemic,” said Shawn Nolan, one of Higgs ’lawyers, according to the AP. “After the two executions that took place last week and another two weeks earlier, COVID numbers in the Terre Haute federal prison have increased enormously.”

Higgs disease could cause a delay in his execution, scheduled for Jan. 15, as his lawyers worry his condition could get worse. Higgs ’diagnosis means he will likely be banned from visiting with the family in the weeks leading up to his planned death, AP reports.

“Now our client is sick,” Nolan said. “We have asked the government to withdraw the execution date and we will ask the courts to intervene if they do not.”

The Trump administration has set the record for the most federal executions to occur in a period of presidential transition with its recent onslaught of executions to death. Justice Minister William BarrBill BarrCruz: Mexico harms security and US relationship by undermining DEA’s knockout blow McConnell against Trump Biden says he is “sure” his son Hunter Biden has done nothing wrong MORE gave the green light to the federal government to resume executions in July after a 17-year ban.

If the execution is delayed until Biden takes office, it is possible that the president-elect will suspend Briggs ’death by an immediate freeze on federal executions. Biden has previously noted his desire to abolish the federal death penalty when he vows to be sworn in as president.

– Updated at 8:07 p.m.