Nashville General Hospital declines to disconnect inmate's heart device before execution
A local hospital where the state has been ordered to disconnect a death row inmate's heart device before his execution now says it never agreed to perform the procedure.
Byron Black, 69, is set to be executed on Aug. 5 for the 1988 South Nashville murders of his ex-girlfriend Angela Clay and her two young daughters.
His case is growing ever more complicated with his execution just days away. Black's lawyers have argued that his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) for congestive heart failure would cause a prolonged and painful death by shocking him repeatedly as the lethal injection drug works its way through his system.
A Davidson County Chancery Court judge in July ordered the state to disconnect the device on the morning of his execution at Nashville General Hospital. The state Attorney General's Office has pushed back on the order and is now appealing to the Tennessee Supreme Court.
The state in court documents said a third-party provider would be willing to deactivate the device on Aug. 4 at Nashville General Hospital, as technicians would not come to the prison to perform the procedure.
But Nashville General Hospital in a statement July 30 said reports of its involvement are inaccurate and that it has no role in executions.
'The correctional healthcare provider contracted by the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC), did not contact appropriate Nashville General Hospital leadership with its request to deactivate the implanted defibrillator,' Nashville General spokesperson Cathy Poole said in a statement. 'Any assertion the hospital would participate in the procedure was premature. Our contract with the correctional healthcare provider is to support the ongoing medical care of its patients."
Poole said the request would require cooperation with 'several other entities, all of which have indicated they are unwilling to participate.'
The debacle was first reported by WLPN news.
TDOC deferred questions to the Tennessee Attorney General's Office. The office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
'TDOC has mishandled this situation from the beginning,' Black's lawyer Kelley Henry, a supervisory assistant federal public defender, said in a statement. 'My hope is that the Governor will issue a reprieve to avoid a gruesome spectacle.'
It's unclear what will now happen in his case. His execution is set to move forward unless a stay is issued by the U.S. Supreme Court or Gov. Bill Lee.
Black filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme court on July 29 asking to stay his execution. His lawyers have noted that he is intellectually disabled and suffers from dementia, brain damage and heart failure.
Under today's laws, he would not be eligible for execution.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Will the west Dayton hospital proposal make it onto the November ballot?
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — The decision to build a new hospital in west Dayton could be in the hands of voters this November. The Clergy Community Coalition held a press conference on Tuesday to announce progress toward reaching their goal. 'We are very pleased to announce that we're turning in 2,800 signatures into the clerk of the commission,' said Bishop Richard Cox, CCC president. It was back to the drawing board after Dayton City Commissioners were split with a 2-2 vote and one abstention just three weeks ago over the imitative to add the hospital petition to the ballot. In just 20 days, the coalition gathered even more signatures from the community, in order to put it on the ballot regardless of the commission's vote. The CCC says it's a step in the right direction, and couldn't have been done without the community's support. 'I think it's a win-win for the city. It would provide adequate health care and alleviate the health care desert that we're now living in,' said Cox. 'It's also a win-win for the city commission because then the politicians that we elected to serve us can still work with us as we pursue this effort.' If the petition goes through the Montgomery County Board of Elections once all the signatures are verified, it will be up to the people of Dayton to make the choice in November. However, the coalition says they still want to work with the commissioners regardless of how they initially voted. 'We're still interested in working with you. We elected you to serve us, and we want to work with you to make sure that the citizens of Dayton in this upcoming election, get the services they need from the people that they have elected,' said Cox. However, if the initiative does pass, there will not be adequate money to immediately build a hospital. The coalition says they plan to go to the state and some potential partners for investment money, although they have not revealed who those partners would be. They also say they are not naive to think the project will happen overnight. But they do have some target goals in mind. 'It's all incremental and it will take time. But our hope would be that we have something standing by 2032,' said Nancy Kiehl, CCC secretary. 2 NEWS reached out to Dayton City Commissioners for comment, with one commissioner replying that he would share a statement once the signatures were verified and in the hands of the board of elections. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. nonprofit embroiled in Dream Keeper scandal warns of ‘complete shutdown'
San Francisco's efforts to cut off a nonprofit from city funding for allegedly bribing a former city official is threatening the future of the organization's programs for needy kids and their families in the Western Addition. Attorneys for Collective Impact, the nonprofit embroiled in a scandal over its close ties to former San Francisco Human Rights Commission Executive Director Sheryl Davis, said in a legal filing Monday that the organization 'anticipates a complete shutdown of its programs by October.' The attorneys were arguing against an attempt by City Attorney David Chiu to prohibit Collective Impact from receiving city funding for five years. Chiu is seeking to debar Collective Impact after a joint investigation by his office and the controller found that the nonprofit had spent thousands on college tuition for Davis' son, paid for Davis to upgrade her flights to first class and covered costs related to her personal ventures — all while receiving millions from her department. If Chiu succeeds in debarring Collective Impact, the nonprofit would have to end its summer and afterschool programs and close the doors of its three-decade-old Ella Hill Hutch Community Center, its attorneys Lauren Kramer Sujeeth and Si Eun Amber Lee wrote. The nonprofit would no longer be able to provide families with healthy food or help paying their bills. 'The disproportionate effect of poverty will once again come to Western Addition,' the attorneys argued. 'Put plainly, without Collective Impact, the community will suffer in ways that the city is simply not prepared to handle.' Davis, who was close friends with former Mayor London Breed, resigned last September amid intense scrutiny over her management of the Dream Keeper Initiative, Breed's mission to reinvest $60 million a year in San Francisco's dwindling and underserved Black community. Among the revelations was that Davis shared a home with James Spingola, executive director of Collective Impact. She also previously led the nonprofit. Neither Davis nor Spingola have been charged with crimes. Collective Impact was a major recipient of city funding. The organization has received more than $27 million in city grants since 2021, according to the city attorney's office. Under Davis, the human rights commission awarded Collective Impact more than $6 million between December 2019 and May 2024, the office said. The organization reported revenue of $8.3 million in the fiscal year ending in June 2024, according to its Form 990 filing, shortly before the Dream Keeper scandal broke. The nonprofit had almost $6.3 million in net assets. But the city froze Dream Keeper funding amid budget constraints and intense public scrutiny last September, and the city attorney halted all funding to Collective Impact in March as a result of its joint investigation with the controller. Attorneys for Collective Impact said the organization has since spent roughly $2 million in private funding to 'keep alive previously grant-supported programs, preventing the roughly 125 summer program students from suddenly having nowhere to go.' Attorneys for both Collective Impact and the City Attorney's Office made arguments in legal filings Monday ahead of a hearing next week on the proposed debarment. In its filing, the city attorney argued that some of the payments by Collective Impact constituted bribes and demonstrated 'corrupt intent.' 'Whether Collective Impact's payments benefitting Davis are characterized as illegal gifts, kickbacks, or bribes, Spingola knew that he was living with Davis, never disclosed their relationship and continued to direct City funds for Davis' benefit,' the office wrote. "What are they going to do without us?" he said. Asked about the allegations, Spingola said, 'I haven't bribed anyone.' 'How do you bribe somebody?' he said. 'I don't know what bribing is.' The debarment hearing is scheduled to begin Monday.
Politico
4 hours ago
- Politico
Black leaders feel under siege after Trump's DC takeover
None of that appears to have deterred Trump from launching his federal takeover. 'I think this is a moment for the mayor to question whether her strategy, which has been appeasement, has been a success,' said Paul Butler, a Georgetown law professor and former federal prosecutor. He described Trump's actions as a 'bogus declaration' but suggested there is likely little reprieve D.C. officials will gain trying to challenge the president's declaration in court. 'While the court reviews whether he appropriately has this power, the Supreme Court and other lower courts [have] generally allowed him to … proceed with what he wants to do, until they get around to deciding the case,' Butler added. 'It opens the doors to further militarization of the police, not just in the District, but in the other cities that he named.' New York City mayor Eric Adams on addressed the possibility of Trump deploying federal assets to his own city following a string of shootings over the weekend that left at least two dead and eight injured. 'When you have those high profile shootings it sends a signal sometimes across the country that we're dealing with a crime issue in New York, and we're not,' Adams said Tuesday. 'I'm not part of the group that says we don't want to work with the federal government, but we don't need anyone to come in and take over our law enforcement apparatus. We've got this under control.' National Guard troops arrive at the District of Columbia National Guard Headquarters, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025, in Washington. | Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Trump has ignored the wishes of local officials and deployed federal troops in recent weeks. During the height of federal immigration raids in Los Angeles, which sparked protests that turned violent, Trump federalized some 2,000 California Guard troops against the objections of Mayor Karen Bass, who is Black, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told The Recast that Trump's actions in D.C. and his singling out of other Black-led jurisdictions, including his own, is nothing more than a 'diversion and distraction tactic' to shift the focus from a volatile economic climate and the release of materials associated with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
