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Tennessee is allowed to proceed with the scheduled execution of a death row inmate next week, who has a heart device, after the state’s highest court decided the defibrillator does not need to be turned off before his execution.
Inmate Byron Black’s lawyers, who is 69 years old, argued in a Davidson County Chancery Court last month that if the defibrillator is left on, it might try to restart his heart during the lethal injection, potentially extending his suffering.
However, on Thursday, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s decision, stating that requiring the heart device to be turned off would effectively act as a “stay of execution,” something the chancery court isn’t authorized to grant.
Nevertheless, the state Supreme Court justices mentioned that there is nothing stopping the state and Black’s attorneys from agreeing to turn off the defibrillator before his execution on Tuesday morning.
An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is placed in a person’s chest to deliver electric shocks if they have dangerously rapid heart rhythms, helping to bring the heartbeat back to normal.
Black’s attorneys have filed a request with the state Supreme Court on Thursday to pause the execution temporarily, stating that without doing so, he could endure severe pain from his heart being continually shocked back into rhythm during the execution.
One of his lawyers, Kelley Henry, also said she is asking Gov. Bill Lee to grant clemency for her client so that “Tennessee does not move forward with this gruesome spectacle.” She also argued that Black is intellectually disabled and that his execution would violate the state Constitution.
Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakeisha, 6. Nashville police said that Black had previously threatened harm to Clay because she was considering ending their relationship, according to her sister.
Black previously faced three execution dates but those procedures were delayed, in part, because of a pause in state executions in 2022 due to issues in testing its lethal injection drugs.
Tennessee resumed executions in May under a new lethal injection protocol using pentobarbital, a sedative.
State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement Thursday that he will “continue fighting to seek justice for the Clay family and to hold Black accountable for his horrific crimes.”
He added that the state’s experts do not believe Black would suffer severe pain during his execution and also rejected the description of him as being intellectually disabled.
In testimony last month before the Davidson County Chancery Court, medical experts for the state and Black argued over whether his ICD would, in fact, cause prolonged pain.
“Mr. Black will not be feeling the shocks as he will be in a coma” brought on by the lethal injection process, testified Dr. Litsa Lambrakos, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
But Dr. Gail Van Norman, an anesthesiology professor at the University of Washington who specializes in heart surgeries, suggested otherwise. She testified that the use of a potent amount of pentobarbital, which can cause death from respiratory failure, could unnecessarily trigger Black’s defibrillator.
“ICDs sometimes deliver shocks when they’re not needed,” she said. “This is devastating to patients.”
Black’s execution is slated for Tuesday at 10 a.m., barring any court intervention or a reprieve from the governor.
As the legal process plays out, whether Black would even find a medical professional to disable his device is unclear. At issue is also the timing of when his device would be deactivated — his health could be at risk if it were done too soon and his execution was put on hold at the last minute.
Previously, a Tennessee Department of Correction official said that Nashville General Hospital would participate in such a procedure.
But hospital spokeswoman Cathy Poole said the facility “has no role in state executions.”
“The correctional healthcare provider contracted by the Tennessee Department of Correction did not contact appropriate Nashville General Hospital leadership with its request to deactivate the implanted defibrillator,” she said in a statement.
“Our contract with the correctional healthcare provider is to support the ongoing medical care of its patients,” Poole added. “This request is well outside of that agreement and would also require cooperation with several other entities, all of which have indicated they are unwilling to participate.”
The American Medical Association’s code of ethics says physicians should not be forced to determine a prisoner’s competency to stand execution or treat an incompetent condemned prisoner “if such activity is contrary to the physician’s personal beliefs.”
“As a member of a profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so, a physician must not participate in a legally authorized execution,” the code says.
While Black’s case doesn’t involve a doctor or hospital participating in an execution directly, the idea that the procedure is still part of the process would raise ethical questions for medical professionals, said Robin Maher, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
Black’s legal team also says he suffers from other physical ailments, including advanced dementia, brain damage and kidney disease.
“I fear we are going to see many more of these situations as this population grows older,” Maher said of death row inmates, who can spend decades behind bars appealing their cases before they are put to death. Restoring their health, either mentally or physically, only so they can be executed presents a further moral quandary, she added.
“This is the kind of case in which the governor should issue a reprieve that would be the saving grace for Mr. Black,” Maher said.
