Tennessee to execute death row inmate Byron Black
Black, 69, is one of the longest residents on the state's death row. He was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend Angela Clay and her two young daughters, 9-year-old Latoya and 6-year-old Lakeisha.
What they're saying: His legal team argues that a medical device implanted last year to keep his heart beating normally could repeatedly try to shock his heart into rhythm while the lethal injection drug pentobarbital takes effect.
They have fought to have the device deactivated before the execution to avoid a tortuous death they say would violate the U.S. Constitution.
A state judge sided with them last month, saying prison officials must deactivate the device before going forward with the execution, but the Tennessee Supreme Court overruled that decision.
Between the lines: The impending execution of Black has also raised ethical questions due to his intellectual disability.
Testing after his conviction found his IQ lower than 70. If he were tried today, prosecutors agree, he would not be eligible for the death penalty under new state standards.
Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk said in 2022 that he should not be put to death under the new standards, but courts rejected a resentencing.
The big picture: Executions are trending upward nationwide. Tennessee scheduled new executions this year after a lengthy hiatus.
Driving the news: Executions were delayed by the pandemic and then by the 2022 revelation that prison officials were not following state rules for lethal injections.
The Tennessee Department of Correction rewrote the lethal injection protocol. A group of death row inmates is suing, saying the new protocol is opaque and flawed, but courts have allowed executions to move forward while that fight plays out.
Zoom in: Baring any last-minute interventions from the courts or governor, Black is set to be the second Tennessee inmate put to death in 2025. Another inmate is scheduled to die in December.
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Associated Press
a few seconds ago
- Associated Press
Tennessee readies for execution of man with working implanted defibrillator
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee is gearing up for an execution on Tuesday that experts say would likely mark the first time a man has been put to death with a working defibrillator in his chest. Gov. Bill Lee declined Monday to grant a reprieve, clearing the way for Byron Black's execution after a legal battle and ongoing uncertainty about whether the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator will shock his heart when the lethal drug takes effect. The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said it's unaware of any other cases in which a person on death row made similar claims to Black's about defibrillators or pacemakers. Black's attorneys said they haven't found a comparable case, either. Lee said the courts have 'universally determined that it is lawful to carry out the jury's sentence of execution given to Mr. Black for the heinous murders of Angela Clay and her daughters Lakeisha, age 6, and Latoya, age 9.' The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Black's appeals. The execution would be Tennessee's second since May, after a pause for five years, first because of COVID-19 and then because of missteps by state corrections officials. Twenty-seven men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and nine 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. Black's condition Black, 69, is in a wheelchair, and he has dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, congestive heart failure and other conditions, his attorneys have said. The implantable cardioverter-defibrillator he has is a small, battery-powered electronic device that is surgically implanted in the chest. It serves as a pacemaker and an emergency defibrillator. Black's attorneys say in order to be sure it's off, a doctor must place a programming device over the implant site, sending it a deactivation command, with no surgery required. In mid-July, a trial court judge agreed with Black's attorneys that officials must have his device deactivated to avert the risk that it could cause unnecessary pain and prolong the execution. But the state Supreme Court intervened July 31 to overturn that decision, saying the other judge lacked the authority to order the change. The state has disputed that the lethal injection would cause Black's defibrillator to shock him. Even if shocks were triggered, Black wouldn't feel them, the state said. Black's attorneys have countered that even if the lethal drug being used, pentobarbital, renders someone unresponsive, they aren't necessarily unaware or unable to feel pain. Kelley Henry, Black's attorney, said the execution could become a 'grotesque spectacle.' The legal case also spurred a reminder that most medical professionals consider participation in executions a violation of health care ethics. Black's case Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters. 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. Linette Bell, whose sister and two nieces were killed, recently told WKRN-TV: 'He didn't have mercy on them, so why should we have mercy on him?' Intellectual disability claim In recent years, Black's legal team has unsuccessfully tried to get a new hearing over whether he is intellectually disabled and ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court precedent. His attorneys have said that if they had delayed a prior attempt to seek his intellectual disability claim, he would have been spared under a 2021 state law. Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk contended in 2022 that Black is intellectually disabled and deserved a hearing under that 2021 law, but the judge denied it. That is because the 2021 law denies a hearing to people on death row who have already filed a similar request and a court has ruled on it 'on the merits.' In Funk's attempt, he focused on input from an expert for the state in 2004 who determined back then that Black didn't meet the criteria for what was then called 'mental retardation.' But she concluded that Black met the new law's criteria for a diagnosis of intellectual disability. Black also sought a determination by the courts that he is incompetent to be executed.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Tennessee to execute Byron Black amid heart device, intellectual disability concerns
Byron Black is being executed despite intellectual disabilities and a heart device that attorneys said could cause complications. Black is being executed for killing his girlfriend and her daughters 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.
Axios
6 hours ago
- Axios
Arrest warrants issued for Texas Dems who fled state
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday afternoon said he had ordered state police to find and arrest Democratic lawmakers after the state House issued civil arrest warrants — though state law enforcement is restricted to making arrests in Texas. Why it matters: It's the latest attempt by Abbott to compel Democrats back to the Capitol, escalating a standoff that began when over 50 Democrats fled the state to delay votes on a redistricting map that will give Republicans five more congressional seats. The latest:"By fleeing the state, Texas House Democrats are holding hostage critical legislation to aid flood victims and advance property tax relief. There are consequences for dereliction of duty," Abbott said in a news release. Abbott added that he ordered the state Department of Public Safety to find, arrest and return "any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans." This order will remain in effect until all missing Democrat House members are accounted for and brought to the Texas Capitol." Yes, but: DPS officers are state law enforcement agents, meaning their authority ends at the Texas state border. If lawmakers are found within Texas, DPS can detain them and escort them to the Capitol. Catch up quick: Democrats left the state Sunday to try to stall a vote on a President Trump -led proposal to redraw the districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections that could net Republicans up to five seats. The Democrats face a $500 fine for every day they break quorum. The other side: Democrats say the redistricting map is "illegal voter suppression of Black and Latino Central Texans" and a "threat to American democracy." Lawmakers who left the state appear unfazed by the governor's threats earlier to remove them from office. "He's trying to get sound bites and he has no legal mechanism," Houston Rep. Jolanda Jones said in a press conference in New York on Monday.
