Editing Derrick Todd Lee (section)

== Biography ==

=== Birth ===
Derrick was born on November 5, 1968 in St. Franseville, Louisiana.

=== Criminal activities ===
[[File:Victims of Derrick Todd Lee.jpg|thumb|272x272px|Photos of all the victims of Derrick Todd Lee.|left]]
His killing spree started in 1992. One of the known victims and survivor of Derrick was Dianne Alexander. On July 9, 1992, Derrick tried to enter in St. Martin Parish, home of the woman, and he beat and tried to rape her. She was saved thanks to her son that scared Derrick and chased him. In this way, the son was capable of describing the car of Derrick. Also, Dianne had details as to what Derrick looked like and on May 22, 2003, she was able to describe Derrick to a police sketch artist. 
[[File:Baton Rougue serialk Killer's police sketch.jpg|left|thumb|246x246px|The police sketch of Derrick Todd Lee.]]Between the DNA evidence gathered off of the deceased victims, a psychological profile made by Mary Ellen O'Toole and the police sketch based on Dianne's description, the police went public with the information. Police in the nearby town of Zachary recognized the man by a recent incident that they had just investigated. Police in Zachary called the police in Baton Rouge to let them know the name of the suspected perpetrator. Additionally, the Zachary Police Department also let the Baton Rouge Police Department know that they had a DNA sample from Lee due to a prior murder investigation from 6–8 months earlier. The DNA lab ran and compared the samples and they were a match to Derrick Todd Lee.

Once Lee was identified, law enforcement captured him. Lee waived extradition and was returned to Baton Rouge, where he was tried in August 2004 for the murder of Geralyn DeSoto. Desoto had been found dead in her home in Addis, stabbed numerous times.

Although Lee was eligible for first degree murder charges, the District Attorney elected to try Lee for murder in the second degree, because DeSoto had not been sexually assaulted, which meant a first-degree murder conviction would be harder to obtain. Lee was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Derrick was convicted on October 14, 2004, for the  rape and murder Charlotte Murray Pace, made on May 31, 2002. He was sentenced to death via lethal injection. On January 16, 2008, the state Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction and death sentence.

Derrick was placed on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.

=== Death ===
Derrick died on January 21, 2016 at the age of 47, of heart disease at a hospital in Louisiana, where he had been awaiting execution.