09 August 2025 :
August 5, 2025 - Tennessee. Byron Black, 69, Black, was executed on August 5
“My Client Was Tortured Today” said Black’s lawyer Kelley Henry, a longtime federal public defender.
Tennessee executes inmate without deactivating his defibrillator, despite concerns from medical experts that his implanted heart device might repeatedly shock him.
Byron Black was convicted in the March 28, 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her 2 daughters, Latoya Clay, 9, and Lakeisha Clay, 6.
According to prosecutors, Black was in a jealous rage when he shot the 3 at their home.
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.
The state began carrying out the sentence around 10:07 a.m., and Black was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT.
He had no last words. He did leave a message with his attorney, expressing love for his family and friends and encouragement for his legal team.
Black’s attorney said the state strapped him down to the gurney “very tight” and covered his lower half with a blanket.
Kelley Henry, Black’s attorney, said teams finished attaching the 2nd IV on Black at 10:25 a.m.
Media witnesses said Black appeared to be in distress after teams began injecting the lethal drug pentobarbital into him around 10:30 a.m. Around 10:33 a.m., witnesses said they all heard him saying aloud, “It’s hurting so bad.”
Black’s spiritual adviser was in the chamber with him. Witnesses said she said prayers and tried to calm him. “I’m so sorry, just listen to my voice,” one witness recalled hearing her say.
Witnesses said he began groaning, breathing and sighing heavily, raising his head up and showing audible signs of distress.
At 10:35 a.m., witnesses said Black’s head tilted toward his adviser. They didn’t recall seeing him move again from that point. Witnesses said it appeared he became “very still” and unresponsive at 10:36 a.m., and at that time they saw the execution team put out a “rock” or object to signal the injection had been fully administered.
The spiritual advisor left the chamber and had a long hug with someone in the witness room, according to witnesses.
At 10:41 a.m., the blinds closed to the execution chamber. The state formally declared Black dead at 10:43.
Speaking at a podium outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, the media witnesses approached the microphone to describe what they saw at the execution of Byron Black. Each said a version of the same thing: Black had suffered before he died.
The lethal injection had been scheduled for 10 a.m. The curtain to the death chamber opened a half hour later, revealing Black strapped down tight to the gurney and covered with a white sheet. Minutes after the massive dose of pentobarbital started to flow, “he began breathing loudly and sighing,” said a reporter from the local NPR station WPLN. Black raised his head and looked around, then said, “It’s hurting so bad.”
“I’m so sorry,” his spiritual adviser replied.
Another reporter said she saw Black lift his head multiple times. “I can’t do this,” he said. After that, he “audibly gasped.”
Of the 7 media witnesses, several had also attended Tennessee’s last execution, carried out in May. This one was different. “It was unanimous among all of us that we saw him in distress,” said Steve Cavendish, editor-in-chief of the Nashville Banner. “We heard him in distress.”
“My Client Was Tortured Today” said Black’s lawyer Kelley Henry, a longtime federal public defender.
Lawyers for Black had repeatedly warned about the risks of executing their client, a man whose physical and mental health had significantly deteriorated over the years. In addition to a diagnosed intellectual disability, Black had dementia, brain damage, kidney disease, and congestive heart failure.
For much of July, Supervisory Assistant Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry had fought to require the state to deactivate Black’s implanted defibrillator/pacemaker.
Judge Russell Perkins ultimately ruled in Black’s favor, concluding after 2 days of expert testimony that the lawyers had proved their case: There was a risk that the device would attempt to restart Black’s heart during his execution, sending painful shocks through his body. “This risk can be completely avoided by deactivating the device,” the judge wrote.
Lawyers for the Tennessee Attorney General’s office initially told the AP that they would have to transport Black to Nashville General Hospital for the deactivation of the device because the doctors there did not want to enter the execution chamber.
But on July 30, the state later admitted that the hospital was unwilling to participate in the procedure.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court. The Court ruled on July 31 that Byron Black could be executed without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, with the high court noting that requiring that the device be deactivated “amounted to a stay of execution, which is not within the lower court’s power”.
On the eve of the execution, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, and Gov. Bill Lee rejected a plea for clemency.
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 1st person with an intellectual disability to be executed in Tennessee since the state reinstituted capital punishment in 1972.
Black is the 2nd person to be executed in Tennessee this year since the state resumed capital punishment after a 5-year hiatus, the 15th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 2000, the 28th man to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,635th overall since the nation resumed executions in 1977.
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/tennessee-inmate-heart-device-execution
https://theintercept.com/2025/08/06/byron-black-tennessee-exeuction/
