He was sentenced to death 20 years ago. Now, a convicted murderer has been executed in Tennessee State.
Leroy "Lee" Hall died on the electric chair. The 52-year-old was pronounced dead on Thursday at 7:26 pm (local time), the Tennessee law enforcement agency said. Because he had been sentenced to death before 1999, he was allowed to choose the method of execution and decided against lethal injection.
Hall had been convicted of burning his ex-girlfriend's car in 1991 when she was in it. The woman had left him shortly before.
Hall's lawyers had fought repeatedly to protect her client from execution. In particular, they pointed out that Hall was blind to badly treated glaucoma and that his execution was a "violation of humanity."
In addition, according to Hall's lawyers, one of the jury had concealed the murder trial that she herself had become a victim of violence in the partnership. This would give rise to doubts about their impartiality.
Executions since 1976
However, the judiciary rejected all objections from Hall's lawyers. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced Wednesday that he would not pardon Hall. His case has been closely scrutinized for almost 30 years, so the death sentence passed remains valid.
Hall then filed an emergency application to the US Supreme Court for suspension of the sentence, which was also rejected. He was the 21st condemned man to have been executed in the United States since the beginning of the year.
Tennessee is one of the six states where condemned people can vote for execution on the electric chair. But it is the only state that still uses this kind of execution. Four of six inmates died on the electric chair in August 2018.