NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Two days before a Chattanooga man’s scheduled execution, Tennessee’s Supreme Court has denied a request for more time to consider the possible bias of a juror who helped hand down the original death sentence decades ago.
The state’s top justices ruled Tuesday that 53-year-old Lee Hall had exhausted his previous opportunities to appeal his case and the high court was not persuaded to create a “new, previously unrecognized procedure based on the facts of this case.”
(Read more: Tennessee death row inmate moved to death watch)
“While the Court has previously created procedures to fill otherwise procedural voids … due process makes no such demand in this case,” the court ruled. “Mr. Hall is unlikely to convince the appellate courts to otherwise grant relief on this issue.”
Hall is scheduled to die Thursday in the electric chair. It’s a method selected by three out of the five past death row inmates put to death since Tennessee started resuming executions in August 2018.