A convicted murderer was put to death on Thursday as President Donald Trump’s administration pushes ahead with executions of criminals, despite a tradition of outgoing governments refraining from the practice. Orlando Hall, whose trial was tainted by racism according to his lawyers, was killed at an Indiana jail. Mr. Hall, an African American, was convicted in 1995 of participating in the kidnapping, rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl, Lisa Rene, and received a death sentence. He was executed on Thursday night by an injection of pentobarbital in a federal jail after the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeal for a stay. Hall was pronounced dead at 11:47 pm EST.”The decision was the first by Trump-appointee Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who sided with her five conservative colleagues on the nine-judge bench to greenlight the execution.

Source: The Hindu November 20, 2020 22:30 UTC