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2w ago

Tennessee Executes Inmate Without Deactivating Implanted Defibrillator

The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal on August 4 to intervene cleared the way for Tennessee to proceed with lethal injection despite the active cardiac device.

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

  • His legal team argued that the implanted cardioverter defibrillator—used to correct life-threatening arrhythmias—could deliver painful shocks as lethal chemicals took effect.
  • A trial judge in mid-July ordered the ICD deactivated, but the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed that ruling and the U.S. Supreme Court declined his final appeal.
  • Defense attorneys and disability advocates warned that executing a wheelchair-bound inmate with dementia and an active ICD violated constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
  • This execution marked Tennessee’s second since the state resumed capital punishment in May following a five-year pause prompted by COVID-19 and procedural errors.
  • Byron Black’s death brought the U.S. total for 2025 to 28, the most executions in a single year since 2020, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.