A KILLER who kidnapped and gang-raped a 16-year-old girl before dousing her in gas and burying her alive has been executed.
Orlando Hall, 49, was pronounced deceased at 11.47pm on Thursday in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The federal Bureau of Prisons said Hall had been given a lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute.
Hall is a black death-row inmate who was convicted of kidnapping and killing a teenage girl in 1994.
The 49-year-old murderer, along with four other men, kidnapped Lisa Rene from her Arlington, Texas, home 26 years ago, prosecutors said.
The revenge attack on Rene was to get back at the teen girl’s two brothers for a botched $5,000 marijuana deal.
In a matter of 48 hours, Rene was gang-raped in Arkansas and battered with a shovel.
She was eventually buried alive.
Hall’s execution makes him the eighth person to be executed in the US this year – after an approximate 20-year hiatus.
His death comes after a judge postponed the murderer’s execution – which was originally set for 6pm.
US District Judge Tanya S Chutkan ruled a temporary blockage on Hall’s execution hours before the planned execution time.
Chutkan said: “The court is deeply concerned that the government intends to proceed with a method of execution that this court and the Court of Appeals have found violates federal law.”
On Thursday night, the federal government formally asked that the postponement be canceled and the court quickly granted the request.
The Supreme Court order states: “The application to vacate the stay of execution presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is granted.
“And the injunction entered by the District Court for the District
of Columbia on November 19, 2020 is vacated. Justice Breyer, Justice Sotomayor, and Justice Kagan would deny the application.”
A 6-3 vote decided the call to vacate the district court ruling of Hall’s execution.
The top court also denied three separate emergency requests from Hall seeking to postpone the execution.
The delay came as the Justice Department is trying to reestablish the federal death penalty as Donald Trump’s presidency comes to an end.
Hall’s potential change in fate was requested just hours before his execution – and approximately two months before Joe Biden is set to take office.
President-elect Biden is not in support of the death penalty.
Trump restarted federal executions when he positioned himself as a law and order 2020 presidential candidate amid a wave of racially-charged unrest across the US.
Last year, Attorney General Bill Barr announced the first federal execution dates in 16 years.
Back in October, Christopher Vialva, 40, was pronounced dead after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute – the same one Hall was set to be executed in.
The death row inmate uttered his final words “I’m ready, Father” as he was executed despite his mom’s desperate pleas for Trump to spare him.
Meanwhile, an inmate who strangled a pregnant mom and cut the baby from her womb is set to the be the first woman executed in 70 years in the United States.
Justice Department officials have announced last month that Lisa Montgomery will be put to death by lethal injection on December 8.