Death row inmate Lee Hall chooses the electric chair for his Dec. 5 execution

Adam Tamburin | The Tennessean

The next death row inmate set to be executed in Tennessee notified prison officials he wants to die by electric chair, making him the fourth inmate to choose that method over lethal injection since August 2018.

A spokesperson for the Department of Correction confirmed on Thursday that Lee Hall, 53, had requested the electric chair for his Dec. 5 execution. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tennessee's primary method of execution is lethal injection. Inmates convicted for crimes before 1999 can voluntarily choose electrocution instead.

Hall's choice is another sign that Tennessee is bucking a national trend — no other state has used the electric chair since 2013. But Tennessee has used its electric chair three times since the state restarted executions.

Inmates who chose the electric chair said they preferred two 1,750-volt shocks that lasted 35 seconds to a lethal injection that could take up to 18 minutes to kill them.

Tennessee uses lethal injection cocktails that include the sedative midazolam. Experts say midazolam fails to render inmates completely unconscious while painful poison courses through their veins.

Hall was one of dozens of death row inmates who challenged Tennessee's lethal injection protocol in court, saying it amounted to unconstitutional torture.

Hall's attorneys are still trying to block his execution, arguing that a juror in his 1992 trial was unfairly biased against him. A hearing on the claim is scheduled next week in Hamilton County court.

Hall, previously known as Leroy Hall Jr., was sentenced to death in 1992 for the brutal slaying of his girlfriend Traci Crozier in Chattanooga. Hall threw a burning 2-gallon jug of gas at her while she was sitting in her car.

She suffered burns on 95 percent of her body.

Mariah Timms contributed to this report.

Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and atamburin@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter @tamburintweets.