Tennessee executed an inmate Tuesday without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, despite uncertainty about whether the device would shock his heart when the lethal chemicals took effect.
Byron Black was executed after a back-and-forth in court over whether officials would need to turn off his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD. Black, 69, was in a wheelchair, had dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, congestive heart failure and other conditions, his attorneys have said.
The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said it’s unaware of any other cases in which an inmate was making similar claims to Black’s about ICDs or pacemakers. Black’s attorneys said they haven’t found a comparable case, either.
In mid-July, a trial court judge agreed with Black’s attorneys that officials must have the instrument deactivated to avert the risk that it could cause unnecessary pain and prolong the execution.
But the state Supreme Court intervened Thursday to overturn that decision, saying the other judge lacked authority to order the change.
The state disputed that the lethal injection would cause Black’s defibrillator to shock him and said he wouldn’t feel them regardless.
Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya Clay, 9, and Lakeisha Clay, 6. Prosecutors said he was in a jealous rage when he shot the three at their home. At the time, Black was on work-release while serving time for shooting Clay’s estranged husband.
It was Tennessee’s second execution since May, after a pause for five years, first because of Covid-19 and then because of missteps by state corrections officials.
Twenty-eight men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the US, and eight other people are scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025. The number of executions this year exceeds the 25 carried out last year and in 2018.
It is the highest total since 2015, when 28 people were put to death.
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Comments