Tennessee executes man with heart device despite concerns it could shock him

A man of Tennessee condemned in the murders of 1988 of his girlfriend and his two young girls were executed on Tuesday despite a legal dispute that his heart system could shock him several times and expose him to unconstitutional sufferings.

Byron Black was put to death by lethal injection to the maximum Riverbend Security Institution in Nashville, the Correctional Services officials said after the United States Supreme Court and the Governor of Tennessee Bill Lee refused to intervene on Monday.

Black, 69, was declared dead at 10:43 a.m. and he did not have last words, said the commissioner of the Correction Department Frank Strada at a press conference. The curtain of the death chamber was opened to the media witnesses at 10:31 am

Seven media witnesses declared during the press conference that they agreed that after the administration of the lethal injection drugs, Black showed signs of discomfort or distress, breathed deeply and said to his spiritual advisor next to him that “it was so bad”.

The spiritual advisor answered Black, “I’m really sorry,” said media witnesses.

These media witnesses who attended the last execution of the Tennessee in May of the Oscar Smith inmate, who was also put to death using Pentobarbital, said that Smith had not made breath or indicated that he was in pain as black.

The media witnesses said that Black’s legs and feet were covered by a blanket on the Gurney and that his hands were wrapped in brown tape. His body was also selected, some of the media witnesses said, so they did not expect to see him shake if he was suffering.

Kelley Henry, one of Black’s lawyers, told journalists that even if it was not clear if pain came from the effects of pentobarbital or linked to its defibrillator, there will be an examination of the device and its readings as well as an autopsy.

“I interpret that my client has been tortured today,” said Henry.

Black lawyers had asked the Supreme Court to stop its execution on the basis of an assertion that it is mentally incompetent and should therefore not be executed because it would violate its constitutional rights. In addition, lawyers asked the High Court to examine whether the procedure with its execution without first deactivating its implantable cardiofling defibrillator, or ICD, would defy the ban on the eighth amendment to a cruel and unusual sanction.

The Supreme Court rejected requests on Monday before the governor also announces that he would not show leniency.

“The courts have universally determined that it is legal to carry out the execution of the jury pronounced to Mr. Black for the odious murders of Angela Clay and his daughters Lakeisha, 6, and Latoya, 9,” Lee said in a statement. “As a result, I do not intend to intervene.”

Last month, the Davidson County Chancellery Court ruled in favor of Black so that its device was disabled before its execution after its lawyers argued that the ICC – which is designed to provide electric shock to those with dangerously rapid heartbeat – could try to restore its heart at a regular rate while it is put to death.

Black could be “subjected to intense pain and the suffering of having his heart shocked several times in the rhythm during his execution,” they said in a legal file.

But the Supreme Court of Tennessee canceled the decision on Thursday, concluding that the Chancellery court did not have the power to make a decision that would effectively stop execution. However, state judges said there was nothing to prevent the state and lawyers from developing a plan to deactivate the ICC.

However, the prosecutor general Jonathan Skrmetti promised a statement last week to move forward with the execution. He also disputed that Black is intellectually disabled or would suffer from intense pain if he was executed.

“Our office will continue to fight to seek justice to the Clay family,” said Skrmetti, “and to keep black responsible for their horrible crimes.”

At the time of the murders, Black had been in the release of work as part of his prison sentence for having shot the separate husband of Clay, Bennie Clay, about 15 months earlier.

Angela Clay’s sister told Nashville police that Black had threatened to harm her sister because she was considering putting an end to their relationship and bringing together with her husband.

Bennie Clay told Tennessean newspaper last week that he had forgiven Black and that he intended to attend the execution of the man who had killed his family.

“God has a plan for everything,” said Clay. “He had a plan when he took my daughters. He needed it more than me, I guess.”

After Black was put to death on Tuesday morning, Angela Clay’s family members who witnessed her execution said they were relieved to see justice for the victims.

“I thank God for doing this,” said Linette Bell, a sister of Clay’s, in a statement. “His family is going through the same thing now that we went through 37 years ago. I can’t say that I am sorry because we have never had an apology. He never apologized, and he never admitted it.”

During the decades of appeal, Black faced three execution dates, but the procedures were delayed due to the COVVI-19 pandemic and, more recently, a break in the executions of Tennessee due to the test problems of her lethal injection drugs.

Tennessee resumed executions in May under a new lethal injection protocol using pentobarbital, a sedative.

In the testimony of last month to Davidson County Chancery Court, state and black medical experts have pleaded on the question of whether his ICC, which was installed last year, would actually cause prolonged pain.

“Mr. Black will not feel shocks because he will be in a coma” provoked by the lethal injection process, testified Dr. Litsa Lambrakos, cardiac electrophysiologist at the Medical School of the University of Miami Miller.

But Dr. Gail Van Norman, professor of anesthesiology at Washington University specializing in cardiac surgery, suggested the opposite. She testified that the use of a powerful quantity of pentobarbital, which can lead to the death of respiratory failure, could unnecessarily trigger the Black defibrillator.

“ICDs sometimes provide shocks when they are not necessary,” she said. “It’s devastating for patients.”

The potential deactivation of the Black defibrillator had raised more important questions as to whether a health professional could even be found who would be willing to help the Tennessee correction department.

The main medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Board of Anesthesiology, have adopted ethical codes which generally promote the health and well-being of patients and do not explicitly tolerate the participation of their members in executions.

The defenders of Black said that his case, taking into account his unique position surrounding his defibrillator, as well as his documented mental deficiencies, justified the granting of the governor’s leniency.

Black was in a wheelchair and suffered from several ailments in addition to congestive heart failure, including dementia, kidney disease and prostate cancer, said lawyers.

Henry, the longtime lawyer of Black, said that Black refused to make a final statement from the House of Death because he felt too shy and “it is simply not who I am”.

But, she said, he left a message to his loved ones: “I love you and I will never forget you. All our relationships were very special. It was my pleasure to meet everyone and the way we connected with each other. May God bless you and thank you.”

The way Black raised his head and expressed that he had poorly suggested that the execution did not go as the state had provided for in its use of the pentobarbital, added Henry. Officials of the Ministry of Correction did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Black’s actions during execution.

The execution of Black is the 28th carried out in the United States in 2025, a summit not seen since 2015, according to the information center on the non-profit death penalty. The number of executions, however, has generally dropped, in part because the states of the death penalty have had difficulty acquiring drugs by lethal injection.