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Lee
Hall, 54, is set to die at 7 p.m. (0100 GMT) at the Riverbend
Maximum Security Institution in Nashville for the 1991 murder of
Traci Crozier.
On Wednesday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said he would not
intervene in the case, a day after Hall was placed on death
watch and moved to a cell next to the execution chamber.
Hall has filed several unsuccessful legal challenges in state
and federal court since his conviction for first-degree
premeditated murder and aggravated arson in 1992 when he was
sentenced to death. Tennessee's supreme court this week denied
his latest request to delay his execution as his claim that one
of the jurors was biased because she was a victim of domestic
violence is considered.
In the spring of 1991, Crozier moved in with her grandmother and
uncle in Chattanooga after breaking up with Hall, who she lived
with for five years.
Three weeks after the breakup, during the night of April 16,
Hall drank a case of beer and went looking for Crozier. On his
way to her home, he filled a tea jug with gasoline and bought a
cigarette lighter, according to court documents citing his
testimony.
Hall found Crozier driving up to her grandmother's home and an
argument ensued. He then doused her with the gasoline and lit
her ablaze inside her two-door Nissan Pulsar.
A neighbor saw "a ball of fire" in the middle of the street and
called for emergency assistance as her son helped pull Crozier
out of the torched car. The neighbor said that Crozier remained
alert, telling her that Hall set the fire and saying "it was
gas, gas bomb. He set me on fire."
When fire and rescue workers arrived at the scene, they found
Crozier with 95% of her body burned and rushed her to the
hospital where she succumbed to her injures hours later.
When Hall was questioned by police, he said he only intended to
burn Crozier's car, like he did once before, court papers said.
Hall would be the 20th inmate in the United States and the third
in Tennessee to be executed in 2019, according to the Death
Penalty Information Center.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; editing by Jane
Wardell)
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