Tennessee death row inmate who burned girlfriend alive orders Philly cheesesteak, onion rings, cheesecake for last meal
The governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, has declined to intervene and stop the scheduled execution of a blind Tennessee inmate who was sentenced to death over the brutal 1991 murder of his ex-girlfriend.
Lee Hall, 53, is set to be executed by electric chair on Thursday, December 5, and has now chosen his last meal to be a Philly cheesesteak, two orders of onion rings, a slice of cheesecake, and a Pepsi, according to the Tennessean. Inmates are given around $20 for the meal.
During his near-three decade stay inside prison, Hall became functionally blind due to improperly treated glaucoma. Following Bill Lee's refusal to intervene in the case, only a federal court can now stop the execution, failing which Tennesee will become the first state in modern history to electrocute a blind man.
He was moved out of his cell on death row on December 3 and into a cell next to the execution chamber for a three-day period known as "death watch," as per protocol. During this period, the Tennessee Department of Correction said: "Strict guidelines are implemented to maintain the security and control of the offender and to maintain safe and orderly operations of the prison."
Hall was initially arrested in 1991 after murdering his ex-girlfriend, Traci Crozier. He set her car on fire while she was still inside by filling a container with gasoline, stuffing a paper towel over the top, lighting it on fire, and then throwing it into the vehicle.
The container exploded and Crozier suffered burns to 95% of her body and died a little over a day later at Erlanger without ever regaining consciousness. Hall was subsequently found guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated arson by a Hamilton County jury in 1992 and sentenced to death.
"The justice system has extensively reviewed Lee Hall's case over the course of almost 30 years, including additional review and rulings by the Tennessee Supreme Court yesterday and today," the governor said in his statement about Hall. "The judgment and sentence stand based on these rulings, and I will not intervene in this case." Hall’s team has filed several legal filings in federal court on Wednesday in a last effort to block the execution.
Earlier this year, the 53-year-old chose the electric chair over the lethal injection as his preferred method of execution -- under state law, anyone convicted of a capital offense before January 1999 is allowed to pick and choose between the two.
He is also one of several death-row inmates who have filed a lawsuit against the state claiming that its administering of the lethal injection is unconstitutional. That legal challenge is currently ongoing.