US Supreme Court clears path for 8th federal execution

Terre Haute: The US Supreme Court is clearing the 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. The high court's ruling late Thursday night overturned an earlier court order that had halted Orlando Hall's execution. An appeal in the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia remains pending.

Hall, 49, was among five men convicted in the abduction and death of Lisa Rene in 1994. He would be the eighth federal inmate put to death since the Trump administration resumed federal executions this year after a pause of nearly two decades.

His attorneys have raised a number of concerns in their legal challenges and appeals, including constitutional questions and concerns over the federal Bureau of Prisons' protocols for executions.