Tennessee to execute Byron Black amid heart device, intellectual disability concerns
As Angela Clay and her two young daughters slept in their Nashville home, a killer approached. They didn't stand a chance.
Clay and her eldest daughter, 9-year-old Latoya, were found shot dead in bed. Clay's other girl, 6-year-old Lakeisha, was found on the floor in another bedroom, killed while apparently trying to escape.
Now, 37 years later, Tennessee is set to execute the man convicted of killing them: Clay's boyfriend, Byron Black. If the execution moves forward on Tuesday, Aug. 5, Black will become the 28th inmate put to death in the United States this year, a 10-year high, with at least nine more executions scheduled.
The case is unique for two reasons — Black's "undisputed intellectual disability" has many calling for a reprieve, including some Republicans; his attorneys have raised serious questions about whether Black's implanted heart device will cause "a prolonged and torturous execution" in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
"Byron's execution carries so many risks," his attorney, Kelley Henry, said in a statement. "He is elderly, frail, and cognitively impaired; there's no principled reason to move forward with this torturous procedure."
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement that the state's expert testimony "refused the suggestion that Black would suffer severe pain if executed."
"Our office will continue fighting to seek justice for the Clay family and to hold Black accountable for his horrific crimes," Skrmetti said.
Here's what you need to know about the murders, the three lives that were shattered, and Black's execution.
When will Byron Black be executed?
Black's execution by lethal injection is set for 10 a.m. CT on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
What was Byron Black convicted of?
Black was convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend, Angela Clay, and her two daughters: 9-year-old Latoya and 6-year-old Lakeisha. They were murdered on March 27, 1988.
At the time of the murders, Black had been on work release from prison for shooting Clay's estranged husband and her daughter's father, Bennie Clay, in 1986. Prosecutors told jurors at trial that Black killed Angela Clay because he was jealous of her ongoing relationship with her ex.
Investigators believe that Angela Clay and Latoya were shot as they slept, while Lakeisha appeared to have tried to escape after being wounded in the chest and pelvis.
Bennie Clay has previously told The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, that he believes Black killed the girls to spite him. "My kids, they were babies," he told the paper. "They were smart, they were gonna be something. They never got the chance."
More recently, Bennie Clay, 68, told The Tennessean that he planned to attend the execution, though he said he has forgiven Black.
'God has a plan for everything,' he told the paper. 'He had a plan when he took my girls. He needed them more than I did, I guess.'
Judge ordered Byron Black's heart device removed before execution
On July 22, a judge ordered that a heart device implanted in Black needed to be removed at a hospital the morning of his execution, a development that appeared to complicate matters as a Nashville hospital declined to participate.
But the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the judge's order, and the U.S. Supreme Court backed that up, clearing the way for Black to be executed despite the heart device.
His attorneys argue that the device, designed to revive the heart, could lead to "a prolonged and torturous execution."
"It's horrifying to think about this frail old man being shocked over and over as the device attempts to restore his heart's rhythm even as the State works to kill him," Henry said in a statement.
The state is arguing that Black's heart device will not cause him pain.
Byron Black's attorneys call on the governor for help
With their arguments over Byron's heart device at the end of the legal road, Black's attorneys are re-focusing their attention on his intellectual disabilities, and calling on Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to stop the execution and prevent "a grotesque spectacle."
Citing Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and exposure to toxic lead, his attorneys said his mental impairments meant Black always had to live with and rely on family. Even now on death row, his attorneys said that other inmates "do his everyday tasks for him, including cleaning his cell, doing his laundry, and microwaving his food."
"If ever a case called for the Governor to grant clemency or, at the very least, a reprieve, it is this one," Henry said in a statement.
The director of Tennessee Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty said that she supports accountability for people who commit heinous crimes, but "the law is clear that we do not execute people with intellectual disability."
"Governor Lee can insist on accountability while ensuring that the law is also followed. A situation such as this is exactly why governors have clemency power," Jasmine Woodson said in a statement. "Mr. Black has spent over three decades in prison for this crime and will never be released. As a conservative, I believe that he should remain behind bars, but he should not be executed."
Lee's office has not responded to USA TODAY's requests for comment.
In his statement to USA TODAY, Skrmetti pushed back at findings that he's intellectually disabled and said that "over the decades, courts have uniformly denied Black's eleven distinct attempts to overturn his murder convictions and death sentence."
Angela Clay's family seeks justice
Earlier this year, Angela Clay's sister told The Tennessean that she and her family were frustrated with years of delays, court hearings, and uncertainty.
"It's been decades and nothing has happened," she said. "He needs to pay for what he did."
Angela Clay's mother, Marie Bell, told The Tennessean that she had been waiting far too long for justice.
"I'm 88 years old and I just want to see it before I leave this Earth," she said.
Contributing: Kelly Puente, The Tennessean
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.
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Los Angeles Times
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Atlantic
2 hours ago
- Atlantic
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The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Redistricting battles reach fever pitch
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