The eighth federal execution this year was conducted late Thursday night in Terre Haute, Indiana when a convicted rapist who buried his teen victim alive was put to death by lethal injection.
Orlando Hall, 49, was pronounced dead at 11:47 p.m. Thursday. He spent his last moments inviting people to Islam and reassured those watching that he was OK. “Take care of yourselves. Tell my kids I love them,” Hall said.
Hall was executed for his role in the 1994 kidnapping and murder of 16-year-old Lisa Rene as revenge after her brothers stole $5,000 from him over a botched drug deal.
Rene was studying for a test at her home when Hall and three others broke into her home, looking for her brothers. They assaulted her, beat her, and drove her to a secluded area where a gravesite was waiting for her.
She had her eyes covered with a mask as she was hit by a shovel, dragged into the grave, and doused in gasoline. The four men then shoveled dirt over her and buried her alive.
The medical examiner ruled Rene died of asphyxiation and that she was buried alive by Hall and his accomplices.
“My family and I are very relieved that this over,” Rene’s older sister said. “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.”
