Activists Protest Outside U.S. Justice Department Ahead Of Federal Execution
Anti-death penalty activist Judy Coode of Pax Christi International demonstrates in front of the U.S. Justice Department's Robert F. Kennedy Building July 13, 2020 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The U.S. government carried out its 13th and final federal execution under the Trump administration on early Saturday.

The execution took place mere days before the end of the Trump administration and the inauguration of anti-death penalty President-elect Joe Biden.

Unlike the Trump administration, Biden appears to have a clear mission against death penalty as he vowed to put an end to it, reported Reuters.

Dustin Higgs, 48, was convicted for ordering the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge in 1996. He had his execution through lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

He was the third to receive the lethal injection this week, said a report from The Associated Press. Higgs was pronounced dead at 1:23 a.m. local time on Saturday.

Higgs's Last Words During Execution Claim Innocence

For his last words, Higgs named each of the women prosecutors said he ordered to get killed: Tanji Jackson, Tamika Black and Mishann Chinn.

He also said he was innocent. "I am not responsible for the deaths," he said. "I did not order the murders."

No apologies were made for the things he was convicted for, on the night 25 years ago where the women by shot by a man named Willis Haynes who received a life sentence.

Higgs turned to a room reserved for relatives and lawyers as the injection began to flow into his veins and said, "I love you."

Uncontrollable sobs from Higgs's older sister, could be heard from the room as he died.

Relatives of the victims were also in attendance, with Jackson's sister releasing a statement saying: "When the day is over, your death will not bring my sister and the other victims back. This is not closure, this is the consequence of your actions."

The sister's name was not revealed.

Trump Administration Oversaw Most Executions in 120 Years

After a 17-year hiatus from holding federal executions, President Donald Trump resumed holding federal executions last year.

With a 13-person death toll, no president has overseen as many federal executions over a 120 year period, noted a report from Al Jazeera.

It is also more than the death sentences over the past 56 years combined, reducing the number of federal death row inmates by nearly a quarter.

Since Biden does not plan on brining death penalty back, it's unlikely that the 50 men remaining on death row will face execution anytime soon.

The only woman on it, Lisa Montgomery, was executed on Wednesday for killing a pregnant woman. She was the first woman to face execution in nearly 70 years.

Before Trump's presidency, only three people were put on death row by the federal government since 1963. But last year, 10 people went through federal execution.

It marked the first time it held more executions than all of the U.S. states combined, data from the Death Penalty Information Center said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Higgs's execution marked the end of a "cruel, inhumane and lawless" practice in federal government.

They also called on President-elect Biden to meet his promise of putting an end to the federal death penalty.