NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A blind prisoner convicted of killing his estranged girlfriend by setting her on fire in her car was put to death Thursday in Tennessee’s electric chair, becoming only the second inmate without sight to be executed in the U.S. since the reinstatement of the nation’s death penalty in 1976.

Lee Hall, 53, was pronounced dead at 7:26 p.m. at a Nashville maximum-security prison, prison officials said. He chose the electric chair over Tennessee’s preferred execution method of lethal injection — an option allowed inmates in the state who were convicted of crimes before January 1999. He also became the first blind inmate in U.S. modern history to die by electrocution.

Hall had his vision when he entered death row decades ago, but his attorneys say he later became functionally blind from improperly treated glaucoma. Only one other known blind inmate has been executed in the U.S. since the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976: Clarence Ray Allen, 76, received a lethal injection in California in 2006.

Court documents state that Hall killed 22-year-old Traci Crozier on April 17, 1991 by setting her car ablaze with a container of gasoline that he lit and tossed in her vehicle while she was inside and trying to leave him. The container exploded and Crozier suffered burns across more than 90% of her body, dying the next day in the hospital.

Crozier’s sister, Staci Wooten, and her father, Gene Crozier, had said earlier they planned to watch Hall’s execution.

Defense attorney Kelly Gleason had asked the federal courts to stop Hall from being put to death after other attempts in state courts and with Tennessee’s governor had failed.

Previously, Hall’s attorneys had been fighting for months to delay the execution plan, arguing that courts should have had the opportunity to weigh new questions surrounding a possible biased juror who helped hand down the death sentence decades ago against Hall, who was formerly known as Leroy Hall Jr.

The woman — simply known as “Juror A”— acknowledged publicly for the first time this year that she failed to disclose she had been repeatedly raped and abused by her former husband during Hall’s jury selection process. Hall’s attorneys argued the omission deprived him of a fair and impartial jury — a right protected in both the Tennessee and U.S. constitutions

However, both the Tennessee Supreme Court and Gov. Bill Lee declined to step in despite pleas from Hall’s attorneys for more time to explore the possible legal concerns.

Lee, a Republican, has not intervened in any of the four execution cases that have come across his desk since he became governor in January. He also has previously declined to weigh in on whether he approves of the state’s increased usage of the electric chair, noting instead that it’s a legal option in Tennessee.

The U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled on whether use of the electric chair violates the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, but it came close about 20 years ago after a series of botched electrocutions in Florida.

Meanwhile, state courts in Georgia and Nebraska have declared the electric chair unconstitutional.

The high court has also neither set an upper age limit for executions nor created an exception for a physical infirmity.

Tennessee is one of six states in which inmates can choose the electric chair, but it’s the only state that has used the chair in recent years. Three out of five recent inmates put to death in Tennessee have chosen the chair since the state began resuming executions in August 2018.Steam poured out of blind murderer Leroy Hall’s head as he was executed by electric chair

Dec 6 2019

STEAM poured from the head of a blind murderer as he was executed by electric chair in Tennessee on Thursday.

Leroy Hall, 53, was put to death for the 1991 murder of girlfriend Traci Crozier, 22, who died after Hall set her car ablaze as she was trying to leave him.

Hall lit a container of petrol before throwing it into the car, and Crozier died the following day having suffered burns across more than 90 per cent of her body.

Hall was pronounced dead at 7.26pm as a maximum security prison in Nashville, officials confirmed.

He became only the second inmate without sight to be executed in the US since the death penalty was reintroduced in the US in 1976.

Hall had vision when he was first incarcerated, but his attorneys said he became functionally blind because of improperly-treated glaucoma.

He chose to be executed by electric chair instead of Tennessee’s preferred method of lethal injection, an option afforded to death row inmates convicted before January 1999.

Witnesses reported seeing his right pinkie hyper-extend before it slumped and his body collapsed.

A white plume of what was thought to be smoke was also seen above the right side of his head, though officials later confirmed it was in fact steam.

“There was a small amount of steam, not smoke, which is a natural function of the combination of solution and heat,” said spokesperson Dorinda Carter, who also witnessed the execution. “The process went as designed without any complications.”

‘WE HOPE MONSTER’S DEATH WILL BRING PEACE’

Present at the execution were Crozier’s sister, Staci Wooten, as well as her father, Gene Crozier.

Wooten said afterwards: “Hopefully today ending this monster’s life will bring some peace within everyone who has had to suffer throughout these 28 years without my beautiful sister.”

Defence attorney Kelly Gleason had asked the federal courts to stay the execution, asking them to consider claims of bias on the part of one of the jurors who convicted Hall.

The woman, known as Juror A, did not disclose during jury selection that she had suffered repeated rape and abuse by an ex-husband, and Gleason argued the omission undermined the juror’s impartiality.

But both the Tennessee Supreme Court and state governor Bill Lee declined to intervene.

Asked if had any final words, Hall said: “People can learn forgiveness and love and will make this world a better place.”

Tennessee is the only state to have used the electric chair for executions in recent years.

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