US Supreme Court clears way for execution of Orlando Hall

The US Supreme Court late on Thursday cleared the way for the Justice Department’s plan to execute Orlando Hall, an African American, by lethal injection, overturning a lower court’s order that blocked it on the grounds of the method of execution.

The Supreme Court also denied motions to halt the execution in three other cases filed by Hall’s lawyers.

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The federal Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a request from a media seeking details.

Earlier in the day, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan had blocked the execution after a federal appeals court issued a divided opinion on Wednesday that found that the Justice Department had violated the law by executing people using the drug pentobarbital without a prescription.

Hall, 49, is the subject of three separate legal battles to delay his execution, in what would be the eighth one carried out this year under the Trump administration after a 17-year hiatus.

If he is executed, Hall would become the second African American to die by lethal injection in recent months.

He was convicted by an all-white jury for his role in the 1994 kidnapping, rape and murder of the 16-year-old sister of two Texas drug dealers whom he suspected had stolen money from him.

Reuters