Louisiana serial killer Derrick Todd Lee dies, official says

NEW ORLEANS: Serial killer Derrick Todd Lee, who was convicted of murdering two women and was sentenced to death, has died at a hospital where he was taken for emergency treatment, state corrections officials said.
Lee went to the hospital early Saturday and died shortly before 9 a.m. Thursday, Department of Public Safety and Corrections spokeswoman Pam Laborde said in an emailed statement. She said an autopsy will determine cause of death.
Lee was sentenced to life for one murder and to death for killing 22-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace, who was stabbed 81 times and bludgeoned with an iron in May 2002.
The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld that conviction and sentence in September, rejecting claims that his lawyer should have brought up evidence of mental illness.
DNA evidence linked Lee to five additional killings from 1998 to 2003; Diane Alexander survived to testify against him in both the Pace trial and for the murder in 2002 of Gerilyn DeSoto.
Lee was convicted of second-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence, in DeSoto’s death. Jurors voted 11-1 to convict him of first-degree murder, which can bring a death sentence. Because the vote was not unanimous, he was convicted of the lesser charge.