Dennis Mitchell Orbe was convicted for the January 24, 1998 murder of a convenience store clerk in York County. The store's video security camera showed that Orbe displayed a revolver and shot the clerk, Richard Sterling Burnett, after he opened the cash register drawer. A customer found Burnett's body a short time later and called the police. Orbe was captured several days later, after a high-speed chase in Richmond.

At trial, the Commonwealth convinced the jury of Orbe's guilt and that his past behavior indicated that he would be a future danger to society. This behavior consisted of three separate incidents that took place in the week before the murder. Witnesses testifying in support of Orbe to mitigate his conduct told of his troubled childhood, abuse of alcohol, a radical change in his behavior shortly before the crimes, and his good behavior in jail. A psychologist, also testifying on Orbe's behalf, said that Orbe had exhibited suicidal tendencies, was depressed over his perceived failure as a father, and had an impulse control dysfunction. The psychologist surmised that Orbe's behavior was in part motivated by a desire to reunite with his father who had abandoned him at an early age.

Orbe did not take the stand before the jury recommended the death penalty even though his remorse for the killing might have convinced the jury to prefer life in prison. However, before the judge officially sentenced him, Orbe gave a twenty-five minute long speech in which he apologized for the murder and asked to be sentenced to death. He also claimed that the gun accidently discharged and that he had no intention of killing Burnett. The Commonwealth's Attorney who asked for the sentence admitted after the trial that the killing "didn't have the vileness that a lot of these cases do."

Although his appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia raised many important constitutional challenges to his conviction and sentence, the court refused to consider many of these on their merits because they were not made in accordance with several of Virginia's highly technical rules for appeals. The court did consider a few claims on their merits, but rejected them all. The first of these claims was that the jury should have been instructed on first degree murder in addition to capital murder. The court disagreed, stating that the capital murder instruction was proper because the videotape of the murder clearly showed that it was committed in the course of a robbery. Incredibly, the court failed to realize that the very language it used ("the video tape clearly established that Burnett was shot in the commission of armed robbery") is almost exactly the language of the first degree murder statute ("murder, other than capital murder...in the commission of...robbery...is murder of the first degree")! In addition, Orbe questioned whether it was proper for the jury to see personal photographs of the victim which had nothing to do with whether Orbe was guilty or not. The jury also was able to consider in its sentencing determination crimes Orbe was alleged to have committed but was never convicted of. Thus Orbe was sentenced to death on the basis of several crimes which the Commonwealth never had the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt.

Orbe and his lawyers petitioned the US Supreme Court, arguing that the Commonwealth of Virginia’s 50-page limit on post-conviction petitions makes it impossible for attorneys to present the different arguments necessary for courts to thoroughly review capital cases.  Orbe also filed a resquest for a limited stay with Governor Warner, noting that the current method of lethal injection used by the Virginia Department of Corrections is the “same protocol that the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) have identified as inhumane for animal euthanasia.”

Dennis Orbe was executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia on March 31, 2004.