The executions of two condemned murderers have been delayed for months while they recover from coronavirus. Inmates Cory Johnson and Dustin Higgs had been scheduled to die on Thursday and Friday at the Justice Department's execution chamber in its prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
However, Judge Tanya Chutkan of the US District Court in Washington ordered the US Department of Justice extend their time on death row until at least March 16.
Their lawyers had argued the virus has damaged their lung tissue and giving them the lethal injection would cause such severe pain it would be like torture.
Johnson has been on death row for nearly 28 years after killing seven people alongside his drug-trafficking partners in the Richmond, Virginia, area