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15h ago

Tennessee to Execute Byron Black Without Disabling Implanted Defibrillator

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeals; Governor Bill Lee declined clemency, clearing the way for lethal injection despite Black’s frail health

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 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.”
This undated booking photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Corrections shows Byron Black.

Overview

  • Byron Black’s execution by lethal injection is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Aug. 5 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville for the 1988 murders of Angela Clay and her two daughters.
  • A trial court’s order to deactivate his implanted cardioverter-defibrillator was overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court on July 31, leaving the device active during execution.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the defibrillator dispute and Governor Bill Lee refused to grant a reprieve.
  • Black’s attorneys warn that his wheelchair-bound condition and diagnoses of dementia, brain damage, kidney failure and congestive heart failure heighten the risk of a painful execution.
  • Repeated efforts to bar the execution on grounds of intellectual disability have failed under U.S. Supreme Court precedent and Tennessee’s exclusion of inmates sentenced before its 2021 disability law.