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Tennessee Executes Inmate Without Deactivating Implantable Defibrillator

Black’s death has propelled this year’s U.S. execution total to a five-year high

FILE - This Oct. 9, 2014, file photo shows the gurney in the the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Okla. A 60-year-old Oklahoma man who stabbed a prison cafeteria worker to death in 1998 is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021 in the state's first attempt to administer the death penalty since a series of flawed executions more than six years ago. The state was moving forward with John Marion Grant's lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, lifted stays of execution that were put in place on Wednesday for Grant and another death row inmate, Julius Jones, by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
India Pungarcher, a la izquierda, abraza a la reverenda Ingrid McIntyre en un área reservada para manifestantes contra la pena de muerte frente a la Institución de Máxima Seguridad Riverbend antes de la ejecución de Byron Black, el martes 5 de agosto de 2025, en Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Foto/Mark Humphrey)
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Overview

  • Byron Black was executed by lethal injection at 10:43 a.m. on August 5 in Tennessee with his implantable cardioverter defibrillator left active.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court declined his final appeal on August 4 and Governor Bill Lee refused clemency, ending his legal and executive options.
  • A mid-July trial court order to deactivate the device was overturned days later by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
  • Black’s defense argued that his dementia, brain damage and heart failure could worsen pain if the device delivered shocks during the procedure.
  • The case has underscored ethical objections from health care professionals who view execution involvement as a breach of medical ethics.