Ledell Lee (July 31, 1965 – April 20, 2017)[2] was an American man convicted and executed for the 1993 murder of his neighbor, Debra Reese.

[7] Debra Kay Reese (September 27, 1966 – February 9, 1993), age 26 years, was found dead in 1993 in her home in Jacksonville, Arkansas.

Before he was executed, Lee was working with his lawyers at the Innocence Project and ACLU to conduct DNA analysis on blood and hair evidence collected from the 1993 crime scene.

[12][13] Lee's counsel had argued that they should be allowed to locate crime scene evidence collected in 1993, including a single hair and a Converse shoe with a pinhead-sized spot of human blood on it, for modern DNA testing.

Lee wanted to present new evidence showing that he had fetal alcohol syndrome disorder, significant brain damage, and intellectual disability.

That lawyer, however, was so intoxicated at the hearing that the state moved for him to be drug tested after he slurred, stumbled, and made incoherent arguments.

His next lawyers failed to introduce evidence of the affair, giving up one of many of Lee's important arguments, and never pursued his innocence or intellectual disability claims.

"The kinds of attorney failures here: an affair with the presiding judge by the prosecutor, gross intoxication by defense counsel, and wild incompetence undermine our profession as a whole.

The years of suspension have been related to court challenges to the use of lethal injections, with opponents arguing this form violated the Constitution.

His eyes closed three minutes later and he did not appear to show signs of discomfort, according to Sean Murphy, a reporter with the Associated Press and one of three media witnesses.

[4] In April 2017, Arkansas planned to execute eight death row inmates including Ledell Lee, along with Don W. Davis, Stacey Johnson, Jack Harold Jones, Jason McGehee, Bruce Earl Ward, Kenneth Williams, and Marcel Williams, before the stocks of the sedative midazolam expired at the end of April.

A federal judge initially issued an injunction preventing the executions, but the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned the ruling.

The United States Supreme Court rejected a claim that the accelerated execution schedule was "cruel and unusual punishment" under the constitution.

At one point in the evening of April 20, 2017, the United States Supreme Court briefly delayed the execution as it reviewed appeals.