Lee Hall, the Tennessee death row inmate convicted of killing his estranged girlfriend Traci Crozier in Chattanooga in 1991, has been executed.
The 53-year-old inmate was put to death by electric chair Thursday night at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in front of witnesses, including Crozier's family. He was pronounced dead at 8:26 p.m. ET.
Hall, formerly known as Leroy Hall Jr., has been on death row since he was convicted for the 1991 killing of Traci Crozier. He set her car on fire with a gas bomb while she was still inside. Crozier died from second and third-degree burns.
Witnesses gave their accounts of the execution during a press conference. According to witnesses, his last words were, "People can learn forgiveness and love and can make this world a better place."
“We all fought this battle for you, Traci. And today, we won," Staci Crozier Wooten, Traci Crozier's sister, said. "We've waited 28 years for this to end. The family wants to make sure that Traci was the victim, and not Lee Hall. He was not a victim here. Our family and Traci were the victims," she said.
Witnesses said Hall was given two jolts of electricity starting at 8:18 p.m. ET after being soaked with water. After the second, they said they saw his head sagging to the side.
His body raised up, his hands clenched into fists. That jolt went for about twenty seconds and then his whole body relaxed and he sagged into the chair," witness and WRCB reporter Claudia Coco said.
Witnesses also noticed something that appeared to be smoke coming from the right side of his head both times.
A few minutes after the second jolt, Hall was pronounced dead.
Hall is the second person to be executed in Tennessee in 2019. In August, Stephen West was executed more than three decades after a Union County double-murder.
Three Tennessee death row inmates are scheduled to face execution in 2020. On February 20, Nicky Todd Sutton is set to be the first execution of next year. He was convicted of his grandmother's murder in Morristown, and later the murder of a fellow inmate while serving time in Morgan County.