Dear Sir,

I write regarding the article headlined “My client atoned for his sin but the Trump Administration killed him anyway”, which published on December 15, 2020.

The article writer, Marcy Widder, says Orlando Hall had redeemed himself and found religion and thus should not have been executed. Glossed over was any real mention of what he did to get sentenced to death 26 years ago and was finally executed last week (November 19, 2020). President Donald Trump was wise not to interfere with the verdict and sentence after decades of appeals that affirmed the conviction and death sentence.

Hall was a major drug dealer in Arkansas who went to Texas to get more drugs. In the process of acquiring the drugs, he along with three others came across 16-year-old Lisa Rene, whom he was convicted of kidnapping and raping, and then dousing her with gasoline and burying her alive.

The multiple gang rapes took place over a two-day period. When they were done with her, they tried to kill her by beating her with shovels, but she was still alive when they buried her. She died of asphyxiation.

Hall showed no mercy to Lisa Rene, who never got to have a family of her own. Hall, however, is survived by two sons and 13 grandchildren. The only injustice I see in Hall’s case is that he was not executed 20 years ago.

COMMANDER WAYNE L. JOHNSON, JAGC, Navy (Retired)

Alexandria, Virginia