Federal execution nears for man who killed Texas teenager
The latest inmate set to be put to death as part of the Trump administration’s resumption of federal executions was condemned for kidnapping and raping a 16-year-old Texas girl, then bludgeoning her with a shovel before burying her alive.
Orlando Hall is scheduled to die by injection Thursday at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where seven other inmates have been put to death this year after a pause of nearly two decades without a federal execution.
Late court appeals argue that bias played a role in his death sentence. Hall is Black, and his sentence was recommended by an allwhite jury. His lawyers also contend that restrictions and concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic have limited their ability to help him.
The Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter Thursday to Attorney General William Barr, citing concerns about the virus in urging a stay of execution. The letter stated that the virus “will make any scheduled execution a tinderbox for further outbreaks and exacerbate concerns over the possibility of miscarriage of justice.”
Hall, now 49, was among five men convicted in the abduction and death of Lisa Rene in 1994.
According to federal court documents, Hall was a marijuana trafficker in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, who would sometimes buy drugs in the Dallas area. On Sept. 24, 1994, he met two men at a Dallas-area car wash and gave them $4,700 with the expectation they would return later with the marijuana. The two men were Rene’s brothers.
Instead, the men claimed their car and money were stolen. Hall and others figured they were lying and were able to track down the address of the brothers’ apartment in Arlington, Texas.
When Hall and three other men arrived, the brothers weren’t there. Lisa Rene was home, alone.
Court records o er a chilling account of the terror she faced.
“They’re trying to break down my door! Hurry up!” she told a 911 dispatcher. A mu ed scream is heard seconds later, with a man saying, “Who you on the phone with?” The line then goes dead.
The men drove to a motel in Pine Blu . Rene was repeatedly sexually assaulted during the drive and at the motel over the next two days.
On Sept. 26, Hall and two other men drove Rene to Byrd Lake Natural Area in Pine Blu , her eyes covered by a mask. They led her to a grave site they had dug a day earlier. Hall placed a sheet over Rene’s head then hit her in the head with a shovel. When she ran another man and Hall took turns hitting her with the shovel before she was gagged and dragged into the grave, where she was doused in gasoline before dirt was shoveled over her.