A blind man has been executed in Tennessee for the murder of his ex-partner.
Authorities in the state of Tennessee executed, using an electric shock, last night (03:26 today, Friday Cyprus time) a death row inmate, who had been sentenced to the end of the sentences for the murder of his ex-partner in a horrific way - he had burned her alive - before almost 30 years.
Lee Hall, 54, was taken in an electric chair to Riverside High Security Prison in Nashville, said Tiley Tracer, a State Penitentiary spokesman.
Leroy Hall chose the electric chair instead of the lethal injection of a lethal cocktail of drugs, as Tennessee law gives death row inmates the discretion to choose how to execute them since 1999.
The man, after consuming a large amount of beer, waited for his partner for five years, Tracy Croser, in front of her grandmother's house and when she got there, he had a fight with her before including her and the interior of her car with gasoline and put fire.
Hall's attorneys have made multiple appeals to state and federal courts to have his sentence reviewed, especially since he was blindfolded in prison for not receiving adequate treatment for the glaucoma he suffered from.
But all their appeals were rejected and yesterday the governor of this southern state, Bill Lee, refused to show leniency and clarified that he was not "willing to intervene".
The last appeal of his lawyers to the Supreme Court, invoking the fact that a juror was a victim of domestic violence and therefore her impartiality was disputed, was also rejected.
Tennessee suspended executions in 2009 amid a war on drugs used in intravenous executions of chemicals.
In 2018, the state authorities decided to end the moratorium and since then they have killed five convicts at the end of their sentences, among them three who were taken to the electric chair.
Croser was killed by Hall three weeks after their separation, in the spring of 1991. A neighbor saw a fire in the middle of the street, called the fire department and the police. Her son ran to help the victim.
The young Hall then, after including his ex-partner with gasoline while she was sitting in the driver's seat, set fire with a lighter.
She claimed after his arrest that he just wanted to burn her car, which he had already done once. The neighbor who called the police, citing what her son told her, revealed that the victim was conscious and revealed what happened.
Hall, her ex-partner, "set me on fire," she said. Employees at the emergency center who rushed to the scene found the young woman with burns on 95% of her body.
Crozer succumbed a few hours after being admitted to the hospital. Lee Hall became the 21st executioner to be executed in the US since the beginning of 2019.
Source: sigmalive