A blind man convicted in the death of his estranged girlfriend in 1991 was put to death in the electric chair on Thursday night in Tennessee. It was the fourth time the state has used the method since 2018.

His case marked the second execution of a blind prisoner ever in the United States since 1976, when the nation reinstated death penalty. He is, however, the first blind inmate to be executed by electrocution, CBS News reported.

Lee Hall, 53, was pronounced dead at 7:36 p.m. local time (8:36 p.m. EST), according to the Tennessee Department of Correction. As opposed to Tennessee’s preferred execution method of lethal injection, Hall chose the electric chair. The former method was available to inmates who were convicted of crimes before January 1999.

Hall’s attorneys have battled for weeks to postpone his execution. They approached Tennessee Supreme Court but Governor Bill Lee refused to intervene citing Hall has exhausted his legal options.

“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,” Tennessee's Republican Gov. Lee said after declining to grant a stay. “The judgment and sentence stand based on these rulings, and I will not intervene in this case.”

He was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated arson by a Hamilton County jury in 1992 for killing his ex-girlfriend Traci Crozier. Hall murdered 22-year-old Crozier on April 17, 1991 by setting her car on fire while she was inside. Crozier died the following day in the hospital after suffering more than 90% burns, according to court documents.

Hall was not blind when he entered the death row but an improperly treated "chronic angle closure glaucoma," which was diagnosed in 2010, eventually rendered him functionally blind.

Tennessee executed its third inmate in the electric chair in August who happened to be a man convicted in killing a woman and her 15-year-old daughter in 1986. The U.S Supreme Court has never fully considered the constitutionality of electric chair.

Electric chair
Nicholas Sutton was executed on Thursday night, marking the fifth time Tennessee used the electric chair for death row inmates since 2018. In this picture, 'Old Sparky', the decommissioned electric chair in which 361 prisoners were executed between 1924 and 1964, is seen at the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville, Texas, Nov. 5, 2007. Getty Images/ Fanny Carrier
RELATED STORIES
Tennessee