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Thread: Leroy “Lee” Hall, Jr. - Tennessee Execution - December 5, 2019

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    Leroy “Lee” Hall, Jr. - Tennessee Execution - December 5, 2019


    Traci Latrice Crozier


    Leroy “Lee” Hall, Jr.


    Summary of Offense:

    At around midnight on April 16, 1991, the defendant threw gasoline on the victim, Traci Crozier, his ex-girlfriend, as she was lying in the front seat of her car. The victim received third-degree burns to more than ninety percent of her body and died several hours later in the hospital.

    Hall was sentenced to death on March 11, 1992.

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    On December 15, 1997, the Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed Hall's death sentence on direct appeal.

    http://caselaw.findlaw.com/tn-suprem...t/1012328.html

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    LEROY HALL, JR. v. STATE OF TENNESSEE

    Court: Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals

    August 22, 2005

    Judge: WEDEMEYER

    In 1992, a jury convicted the Petitioner, Leroy Hall, Jr., of first-degree premeditated murder and aggravated arson, and it sentenced him to death for the first degree murder conviction. The trial court imposed a consecutive twenty-five year sentence for the aggravated arson conviction. On direct appeal, the Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the Petitioner's convictions and sentences. See State v. Hall, 958 S.W.2d 679 (Tenn. 1997), cert. denied, 524 U.S. 941 (1998). The Petitioner filed a pro se petition for post-conviction relief, which was subsequently amended by appointed counsel. After an evidentiary hearing, the post-conviction court dismissed the petition. The Petitioner appeals that judgment, contending that: (1) his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance at trial; (2) the post-conviction court erroneously denied the Petitioner's request for an expert attorney to establish his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel; and (3) the death sentence violates the Petitioner's rights under the federal and State constitutions and international law. After thoroughly reviewing the record and the applicable law, we conclude that there exists no reversible error. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

    http://72.30.186.176/search/srpcache...8URdepP0snUg--

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    TN makes unprecedented push to execute 10 killers

    Never before has Tennessee asked to execute so many of the condemned.

    Officials here, believing they are free of the latest round of challenges to Tennessee’s death penalty, recently asked the state Supreme Court for execution dates for 10 death row inmates. One of those 10, Billy Ray Irick, is scheduled to die Jan. 15 for raping and killing a 7-year-old Knoxville girl he had been baby-sitting in 1985.

    An 11th man, Nickolus Johnson, whose execution was sought separately from the 10, is scheduled to be put to death April 22 for killing a Bristol police officer in 2004.

    Those the state has petitioned to execute who don’t yet have dates set include David Miller, who killed a disabled woman with a fire poker in 1981. He has lived on death row ever since, longer than all but one other of the 78 inmates housed in Tennessee’s death row facility at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

    For a state that has executed only six death row inmates since 1960 and none since 2009, the request marks an unprecedented push to carry out the death penalty.

    “I’ve been representing death row inmates for two decades, and never in my experience have I ever seen a situation where a state has requested 10 execution dates all at once,” said Kelley Henry, who supervises capital punishment defense cases with the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Nashville and represents several of those the state is looking to execute. “This is an unprecedented situation.”

    Legal hurdles

    Henry and other attorneys for the condemned men are asking a lower court to halt the executions over questions about the drug the state now plans to use. The Supreme Court could set those dates at any time, but similar challenges in the past have delayed executions in Tennessee, sometimes for years.

    The state minimized the significance of seeking execution dates for 10 inmates, saying instead that those 10 had exhausted the normal appeals and review process. Corrections officials believe they now have a system in place to carry out lethal injections since they recently changed their execution drug.

    “We filed all 10 motions at the same time because they were all ready to be set for execution, and TDOC was in a position to carry them out under a new protocol,” said Sharon Curtis-Flair, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, which requested the 10 execution dates.

    “The Department could not have carried out the executions earlier because it was unable to procure all of the drugs required under the old protocol.”

    But Michael Rushford, executive director of the pro-death penalty, California-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, said executions aren’t ordered by happenstance.

    “You don’t get this unless the governor wants this,” he said. “So obviously they’re moving forward because he told the Department of Correction, ‘Move forward.’ ”

    Gov. Bill Haslam said through a spokesman that he had no involvement.

    “The AG recommends the dates, and the Supreme Court makes the call,” spokesman Dave Smith said.

    'Sort of backed up'

    The average inmate on Tennessee’s death row has been sitting there for nearly 19 years. The 10 selected by the state for possible execution dates average more than 27 years on death row.

    Miller, convicted of murdering a disabled woman with a fire poker, has had the second-longest wait for an execution in the state, outlasted only by Donald Strouth, 54, who has been on death row since 1978 for slashing the throat of a store owner in Kingsport.

    In the years since then, the death penalty here and across the nation has faced a barrage of legal challenges and drug shortages as pharmaceutical companies have pulled commonly used lethal injection drugs from the shelves. Tennessee found itself without sodium thiopental in 2011, putting all executions on hold until it could come up with a new drug, which it finally did in September.

    Those delays probably played a major factor in the state’s recent double-figure request, said Nashville defense attorney David Raybin, who essentially wrote the state’s death penalty statute.

    “For lack of a better word, (executions) sort of backed up,” Raybin said. “I think what they’ve done is, they’ve said, ‘We’ve backed up for so long and now we want to put them all on a fast track because nothing has happened for years.’ ”

    Rushford agreed.

    “I think what happened is, is the pipe has been cleared,” he said. “This is just built-up cases that they now are able to get into this position.”

    Another motive?

    But Raybin suggested that Tennessee officials may have another motive for asking for so many executions.

    On Nov. 1, mass murderer Paul Dennis Reid Jr. died, not strapped to a gurney by lethal injection but in a bed at Nashville General Hospital at Meharry. Reid murdered seven fast-food restaurant workers in Nashville and Clarksville in 1997 and was sentenced to die — seven death sentences in all — the same year.

    The family of Angela Mace, who was killed by Reid at a Clarksville Baskin-Robbins, found out he had died in the hospital through the media and was furious. Mace’s mother, Connie Black, told the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, “If you think about it, he’s in a hospital surrounded by family and has a peaceful death. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way.

    “He just died a normal death like everyone else.”

    Raybin suspects the state, regardless of its public stance, took notice of Reid’s death and the backlash that ensued.

    “You’ve got a guy who killed all those people, the most infamous guy on death row, and he dies a natural death,” Raybin said. “Some people could say, ‘We’re offended because he wasn’t executed.’ ”

    Kelley, with the federal public defender’s office, said she worries that the push for so many executions will obscure the death row inmates’ “individual stor(ies) of injustice,” particularly because Tennessee has been putting fewer and fewer killers on death row. She thinks perceptions about the death penalty have softened over the years.

    “There is no doubt in my mind that if they were tried today, they would not receive the death penalty,” she said.

    http://www.tennessean.com/article/20...ute-10-killers
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    Tennessee sets 11th execution date for condemned

    The Tennessee Supreme Court on Tuesday set an execution date for a man convicted in the 1991 burning death of his ex-girlfriend.

    Lee Hall, formerly known as Leroy Hall Jr., is scheduled to die Jan. 12, 2016. He becomes at least the eleventh death row inmate currently scheduled to die in Tennessee.

    Hall was convicted in 1993 of first-degree premeditated murder and aggravated arson, for the death of his ex-girlfriend in 1991. That year, Hall threw gasoline on Traci Crozier, 22, as she sat in her car. He then set her on fire.

    Crozier died hours later, after suffering serious burns over more than 90 percent of her body.

    The new execution date is part of Tennessee's unprecedented push to begin executing death row inmates after years of inaction. In recent years, the condemned have been far more likely to die of natural causes than execution. Tennessee last executed Cecil Johnson in 2009.

    Billy Ray Irick, who raped and murdered a 7-year-old Knoxville girl in 1985, is scheduled to be executed first, on Oct. 7 of this year.

    Despite the unprecedented number of scheduled executions, a lawsuit challenging the secrecy of Tennessee's new lethal injection procedures has postponed several execution dates. On Monday, the Tennessee Court of Appeals heard arguments over whether the state should be forced to turn over the names of the execution team. Hall is one of the plaintiffs in that lawsuit.

    An appeals court decision could take weeks and lead to further delays in execution dates.

    http://www.tennessean.com/story/news...mned/13960439/
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    Friends of Victim Speak Out About Planned Execution

    It's been a long journey for loved ones of a Chattanooga woman burned to death by her ex-boyfriend. Now they tell us they finally have some relief.

    An execution date has been set for Lee Hall after this 1991 killing.

    "I can't say enough about how sweet she was, she didn't deserve it, that's for sure," said Heather Lewis, Crozier's best friend.

    It's been a rough 23 years for Heather Lewis.

    "She was just taken way too soon," said Lewis.

    That's how long her best friend, Traci Crozier, has been gone.

    "She was such a sweet, caring girl, she would do anything for anybody," said Lewis.

    Lee Hall, formerly known as Leroy Hall, was convicted of killing his 22-year-old ex-girlfriend, Traci Crozier. He set her car on fire while she was inside.

    "Just for the brutal way that he killed her, and just the fact that he killed her in general. How can you do that to somebody?" questions Lewis.

    The state has set Hall's execution date for January 12, 2016. That’s 25 years after the crime.

    While it's common for inmates to enter death row decades after being convicted, Lewis says it's unacceptable for families to wait that long for closure.

    "This a long time coming. It should have happened a long time ago. I'm glad that this is in the works. He definitely deserves it," said Lewis.

    But for Lewis, execution isn't enough.

    "In my opinion, lethal injection wouldn't be good enough for him. I don't understand how you could do that to another person, especially her," said Lewis.

    Lewis told NewsChannel 9 that this is a prime example of why she agrees with the death penalty.

    "I just believe that people who feel like that its okay to go out and murder somebody, they need to be handled accordingly. That's not right," said Lewis.

    Chattanooga Police Sergeant Bill Phillips was on the force when this case happened. He told NewsChannel 9 it's the worst crime scene he's experienced.

    "You still get that sickening feeling, even though this is something you've done for years. You don't get used to things like this happening," said Sgt. Bill Phillips from the Chattanooga Police Department.

    http://www.newschannel9.com/news/top...on-12116.shtml
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    'He needs to suffer': 23 years later, burning death of woman still pains older sister

    The soles of Traci Crozier's feet were the only part of her body not burned.

    Her younger sister, Staci Crozier, sat by her side for hours in the hospital room. She remembers the suffering.

    "She felt every bit of it," Staci said. "She was awake for 36 hours. That's what really bothers me. She knew she was going to die."

    It was April 17, 1991. Traci Crozier's estranged boyfriend, Leroy Hall Jr., had filled a container with gas, stuffed a paper towel in the top, lit the fuse and thrown it on Traci as she sat in her car. It exploded, leaving Traci with second- and third-degree burns over 90 percent of her body. She died the next day, April 18.

    The case riveted Chattanooga for years as it weaved through the courts. In 1992, Hall was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. He's been living on death row in Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville ever since. Last week, the Tennessee Supreme Court assigned his execution date.

    Jan. 12, 2016.

    Staci Crozier will be there. She's been told Hall is losing his eyesight, although the Tennessee Department of Correction does not release health information on inmates. Staci hopes he is completely blind by the time he's executed.

    "So that when that juice is going in his arm, he won't even know when it is going to hit," she said. "And he has to suffer while he sits there and wonders. The longer, the better. Traci had to suffer, and now he needs to suffer."

    Hall's attorney, Kelly Gleason, did not immediately return requests for comment Tuesday.

    After 23 years, it's hard to remember the times before Traci died. Before Hall became abusive. The murder grabbed hold of Staci's life when she was 20 years old and never let go.

    The sisters' mother, Susan Murphy, was in and out of mental hospitals for years after Traci died. Staci's been to countless counseling sessions. The pain eased as time passed. But when Murphy died about six years ago, seeing her mom lying unconscious in the hospital bed brought Staci right back to Traci's hospital room.

    "That messed me up bad," Staci said. "It brought everything back."

    Traci was outgoing. One of the girls that everyone liked in high school, Staci said. In her high school portrait, Traci is smiling, with wavy, shoulder-length brown hair styled with all the volume of the 1980s.

    Traci lived with Hall for six years before he killed her. The first two or three years were good, Staci remembered.

    "He was a pretty good guy at first," Staci said. "And then he just started beating her."

    He would pick fights with Traci's relatives and friends. One day, about six weeks before Traci died, Staci was visiting Traci's home, toying with the idea of moving in with the pair because she had just separated from her husband. Then Hall walked in.

    "I looked at him, and I couldn't see anything in his eyes," Staci said. "It was like looking straight through him. I told Traci, 'Leave with me. There's something wrong with him. I can't have my child here. Please leave with me.' And she said no, 'I'm not leaving my home.'"

    It's a common predicament for family members of victims of domestic violence, said Charlotte Boatwright, president of the Coalition Against Domestic and Community Violence of Greater Chattanooga.

    "It's really difficult being a family member of someone who is a victim of abuse, because there is nothing you can do to make that person make the choice to leave," she said. "Family members often feel like they should have been able to do something, but they can't."

    Just before the murder, Traci did leave. She moved in with relatives for a little while, and was making plans to move to Florida, Staci said.

    But before she could flee, she burned.

    When the paramedics arrived, Traci was awake and she spoke for the last time. She was worried about how her hair looked.

    "I wish I could have been there," Staci said. "To talk to her one more time."

    http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2.../?breakingnews
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Senior Member Member FLMetfan's Avatar
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    Setting an execution date 16 or 17 months out is insane IMHO. If the inmate has exhausted all appeals and a date is set why would a state set a date out so far? it makes no sense to me. All it does is give the defense more time to come up with a ridiculous appeal angle. I question wether the state of TN has the stones to actually carry out the sentence, or if they are just grandstanding. Does it seem strange to anyone else that as the mid term elections draw close that all sorts of things start to happen? execution dates, Gas prices drop. maybe I am too cynical.
    "I am the warden! Get your warden off this gurney and shut up! You are not in America. This is the island of Barbados. People will see you doing this." Monty Delk's last words.

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    Tennessee Supreme Court postpones all scheduled execution dates until legal questions settled

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Supreme Court has postponed execution dates for four inmates, effectively halting all executions while the courts decide whether current protocols for putting people to death are constitutional.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/13...s-until-legal/
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    Hamilton Co. Death Row Inmate Killed Young Woman 24 Years Ago, Her Family Still Wanting the Electric Chair

    Executions in Tennessee are being postponed until lethal injections are aired out in the courts.

    There are three men on death row from Hamilton County, now one victim's family is speaking out.

    In 1991 Traci Crozier died from third-degree burns that covered her body, after gasoline was thrown into her car and set on fire by her ex-boyfriend Lee Hall.

    "I can't call her. Talk to her. Be an aunt. He took everything," said Traci Crozier's sister, Staci Wooten.

    It is two decades later, Traci's family will never stop missing her, and they are exhausted from Hall's execution date being changed, again.

    "He got the electric chair and they should give him the electric chair," said Traci's Uncle Chris Mathis. "Let him see how it feels to burn."

    "It shouldn't be 24 years later," said Wooten. "I think he should be electrocuted. And now they're going to give him a choice. My sister didn't get to choose. He set her on fire and burned her alive. She didn't get a choice."

    Hall was sentenced to the electric chair, but then was given the choice to have lethal injection.

    Now, according to officials with the Federal Public Defenders Office, pharmaceutical manufacturers have made a decision to not be involved in lethal injections, so the department of corrections must find other ways to get these drugs, one that many believe, needs to be aired out in the courts.

    While some, believe the death penalty is not the answer,Staci Wooten believes Hall should suffer.

    "Until you've lived it, been through it. It was your sister, or daughter, or friend. Don't judge it," she said. "But, if you have just one doubt that they didn't do it. I can understand that. But he admitted to it."

    Hall's execution date was set for January of next year, now, Traci's family must continue to wait.

    http://www.newschannel9.com/news/top...ir-16488.shtml
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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