The state of Tennessee on Aug. 5 executed death row inmate Byron Black despite concerns from medical experts that his implanted heart device might repeatedly shock him.
He was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. and had no last words.
Black, 69, had been on Tennessee’s death row since 1989 for the South Nashville murders of his ex-girlfriend Angela Clay and her two daughters Latoya, 9, and Lakeisha, 6. He died by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
Black groaned in pain during the execution, according to Catherine Sweeney, a health reporter at WPLN who witnessed the execution. Sweeney reported that Black said, "It's hurting so bad." His spiritual advisor replied, "I'm so sorry," Sweeney reported.
His unique case made national headlines as his lawyers battled the state to have his implanted heart defibrillator disabled before the execution out of fears that it would repeatedly shock him as his heart stopped, causing a prolonged and painful death.
However, the Tennessee Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the state could move forward with the execution without deactivating the heart device.
A state employee read a statement from the victims' family after Black was executed.
"I thank God for this day, a day that was a long time coming," the statement by Lynette Bell read. "Thirty-seven years is too long, and it's not our fault."
Black was the second man put to death by the state in 2025 after the Tennessee Department of Correction developed its new execution protocol following a five-year hiatus prompted by revelations the state failed to follow its previous procedures.
Black was served his final meal of pizza with mushrooms and sausage, donuts and butter pecan ice cream at 4:45 p.m. Aug. 4, according to Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson Dorinda Carter.
A battle over Black’s mental impairment
In addition to the concerns over his heart device, Black was intellectually disabled with an IQ ranging from 57 to 76.
The state had declared him intellectually disabled, but the Tennessee Supreme Court in July declined a new review of his case since it had already been adjudicated before the state changed its standards. If Black were tried today, he would not be eligible for the death penalty.
Black’s lawyer Kelley Henry, a longtime federal public defender of those on Tennessee’s death row, said Black is the first person with an intellectual disability to be executed in Tennessee since the state reinstituted capital punishment in 1972.
Questions over Black's heart device
Black, who suffered from congestive heart failure, had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) that worked like a pacemaker to maintain his heart rhythm.
The battle over disabling the device caused a confusing legal tangle for the state.
In a three-day hearing in July, a medical expert testified that Black may experience extremely painful, repeated shocks from the device as the lethal injection drug shut down his system.
A Davidson County Chancery Court judge ruled that the state must have the device deactivated at Nashville General Hospital on the morning of his execution. But Nashville General later said it had never agreed to perform the procedure.
That state had argued that Black would be unconscious and unlikely to feel pain.
The U.S. Supreme Court in an Aug. 4 ruling denied Black's request for a stay on his execution, and Gov. Bill Lee said in a news release he did not plan to intervene.
Protesters, supporters gather outside prison
By 10 a.m., more than two dozen people had gathered to protest the death penalty. They conversed softly; there were no chants. A fence separated the areas designated for supporters and opponents of the death penalty.
Bethany Mann was dressed in all black, with a solemn look in her eyes. She called the death penalty "legalized lynching."
She said she had gotten to know people in Riverbend's "Unit 2," where the inmates sentenced to death live, and she said she believes the death penalty is not the answer.
Emily Harrington was protesting Black's execution and said a person with mental disabilities like dementia should not be executed. And after spending more than 30 years on death row, like Black has, Harrington believes "they're not the same person."
"You're just creating more victims, more crime," Harrington said. "It's just a vicious circle."
But some family members of the victims believe Black's death is deserved. Nicoule Davis was 13 when Byron Black killed her cousins. Now 51, Davis and her family gathered outside the prison holding neon signs that read "justice served."
"It's time for a celebration," Davis said. "We've been waiting for years and years."
A crime that rocked South Nashville
The murders on March 28, 1988, shocked the South Nashville community. Angela Clay, 29, and her two girls were sleeping when Black entered the house and shot them to death.
Black had dated Angela when she was separated from her husband, Bennie Clay, and Black apparently became enraged when he heard of their plans to reconcile.
At the time of the murders, Black had been out of jail on work release for shooting Bennie Clay in the shoulder.
Before the execution, Bennie Clay said he had forgiven Black through God.
Black is the second person to be executed in Tennessee this year since the state resumed capital punishment after a five-year hiatus. In May, the state executed Oscar Franklin Smith for the murders of his estranged wife Judith Robirds Smith and her two teenage sons, Chad Burnett and Jason Burnett, in Nashville.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee executes Byron Black despite concerns about heart device
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