Federal government executes man who kidnapped, raped & buried Texas teen alive
UPDATE #2: TERRE HAUTE, Indiana -- The U.S. government has executed a man who kidnapped and raped a 16-year-old Texas girl before dousing her with gasoline and burying her alive.
Orlando Hall is the eighth federal inmate put to death this year after a nearly two-decade hiatus. Hall died by injection Thursday night at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
His attorneys cited concerns that Hall, who was Black, was sentenced on the recommendation of an all-white jury. Hall was convicted in the abduction and death of Lisa Rene in 1994.
The Trump administration renewed federal executions this year. Only three federal inmates had been executed in the previous 56 years.
UPDATE: WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Supreme Court is clearing the path for the federal government to carry out the execution of a man convicted of kidnapping and raping a 16-year-old Texas girl, bludgeoning her with a shovel and burying her alive.
The high court’s ruling late Thursday night overturned an earlier court order that had halted Orlando Hall’s execution. An appeal in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia remains pending.
Hall would be the eighth federal inmate put to death since the Trump administration resumed federal executions this year after a pause of nearly two decades.
Hall’s attorneys have argued that racial bias played a role in his death sentence.
ORIGINAL REPORT: TERRE HAUTE, Indiana -- A judge has halted the scheduled execution of a man convicted of kidnapping and raping a 16-year-old Texas girl, bludgeoning her with a shovel and burying her alive.
The decision was announced hours before Orlando Hall was scheduled to be put to death by the federal government.
Hall was scheduled to die by lethal injection at a federal prison in Indiana on Thursday evening.
He would've been the eighth federal inmate put to death since the Trump administration resumed federal executions this year after a pause of nearly two decades.
Hall’s attorneys have argued that racial bias played a role in his death sentence. Hall is Black and his sentence was recommended by an all-white jury.
