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yesterday

Tennessee Supreme Court Upholds Execution Schedule for Byron Black Over Heart Device Dispute

By overturning a trial court’s order to deactivate his implantable defibrillator, the Tennessee Supreme Court left final appeals pending with a clemency petition unresolved.

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.
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Bennie Clay sits on March 4, 2025, with a photo of his wife, Angela Clay, and their daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakeisha, 6, who were killed in 1988 by Byron Lewis Black.
Nashville General Hospital, pictured on November 19, 2019, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Overview

  • Byron Black’s lethal injection is set for 10 a.m. CT on Aug. 5 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
  • On July 31, the state’s highest court reversed a lower court ruling that would have deactivated Black’s implantable cardioverter-defibrillator before his execution.
  • The court declined to grant a new competency hearing under Tennessee’s 2021 retroactive intellectual disability law, leaving earlier findings intact.
  • Black’s attorneys have filed last-minute appeals in state and federal courts and sought clemency from Gov. Bill Lee.
  • If carried out, the execution would be Tennessee’s second since ending a five-year moratorium and underscores constitutional and medical ethics questions about executing disabled, medically vulnerable inmates.