US

Man Convicted of Raping, Beating Teen With Shovel Executed By US Government

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A man convicted of kidnapping, raping and beating a Texas teenager with a shovel was executed by the federal government on Thursday.

Orlando Hall, 49, was put to death by lethal injection in Indiana in front of a crowd of onlookers just before midnight, according to the Associated Press. The convicted rapist, who was killed after a denied appeal, became the eighth inmate executed by federal authorities in 2020, AP reported.

Hall, a drug dealer, was convicted in connection to the death of 16-year-old Lisa Rene in 1994, according to the news wire. The man, alongside four others, abducted Rene from her home after a botched narcotics deal, raped her multiple times in both a car and a motel and took turns beating her with a shovel, AP reported.

The teenager was then gagged, doused in gasoline and thrown into a makeshift grave, according to AP. Rene was still alive and breathing when she was buried, and a coroner determined she died of suffocation, the news wire reported.

BREAKING: The U.S. Supreme Court clears 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. https://t.co/0InFNpXFcx

— The Associated Press (@AP) November 20, 2020

“My family and I are very relieved that this is over,” Rene’s sister, Pearl, said in a statement, according to AP. “We have been dealing with this for 26 years and now we’re having to relive the tragic nightmare that our beloved Lisa went through.”

“Ending this painful process will be a major goal for our family. This is only the end of the legal aftermath. The execution of Orlando Hall will never stop the suffering we continue to endure.”

The crime was federal jurisdiction because the five men crossed state lines, the news wire reported. Bruce Webster, one of the convicted accomplices was also given the death penalty, but it was later revoked when he was determined to be mentally disabled, according to AP.

The others were given more lenient sentences in exchange for their cooperation with authorities, AP reported.

President Donald Trump’s administration resumed the practice of federal executions this year, according to the news wire. A total of three capital punishments were carried out in the 56 years prior to Trump’s decision, AP reported.