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16h ago

Tennessee Executes Byron Black With Active Implanted Defibrillator

Final denials by the U.S. Supreme Court, combined with Governor Bill Lee’s refusal of clemency, cleared the way for lethal injection despite expert warnings that Black’s active defibrillator could inflict extreme pain.

This undated file photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Byron Black. The Tennessee Supreme Court on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020, indefinitely postponed the execution of death row inmate Byron Black. In a brief order issued on Thursday, the court wrote that Black's execution is stayed pending a further order by the court “because of the multiple issues caused by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.”
Byron Lewis Black, right, listens to testimony during his murder trial alongside his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Ross Alderman, in Metro’s Circuit Court at the Davidson County Courthouse on March 9, 1989.
This undated booking photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Corrections shows Byron Black.
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Overview

  • Byron Black, 69, died by lethal injection at 10:43 a.m. CDT at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on August 5, marking Tennessee’s second execution since resuming in May after a five-year pause.
  • The Tennessee Supreme Court overturned a trial court order on July 31 to deactivate Black’s implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, allowing the execution to proceed with the device still operational.
  • Last-minute appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court on Eighth Amendment grounds and a clemency petition to Governor Bill Lee were denied on August 4, removing the final legal barriers to his execution.
  • Although Black was long declared intellectually disabled and suffered from dementia and brain damage, state courts ruled he could not relitigate competency or disability hearings under a 2021 law.
  • The case intensified scrutiny of execution protocols and medical ethics as major health care associations generally bar physician participation in procedures involving inmates with complex medical conditions.