Latest news with #RiverbendMaximumSecurity
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Death Row Inmate with Heart Device Cries Out During Execution — His Lawyers Say It May Have Shocked Him as He Died
Byron Black, 69, was executed Tuesday despite warnings that his defibrillator could cause pain. Witnesses say he cried out, 'It's hurting so bad.'NEED TO KNOW Byron Black, sentenced to death in the killings of his girlfriend Angela Clay and her two children under 10, was executed Tuesday in Tennessee at age 69 His heart device remained active despite legal challenges Witnesses say he cried out in pain during lethal injection and said "It's hurting so bad"A 69-year-old Tennessee inmate was executed by lethal injection Tuesday morning — despite warnings from doctors and advocates that his heart device could repeatedly shock him during the Black, who was convicted of the 1988 murders of his girlfriend Angela Clay and her two young daughters, ages 6 and 9, was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. local time at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, per the Associated Press. He had no last words. According to multiple witness accounts, Black groaned, gasped and appeared to be in visible distress during the execution. At one point, he reportedly cried out, 'It's hurting so bad,' per the weeks leading up to the execution, Black's attorneys fought to have his implantable cardioverter defibrillator — a medical device meant to shock the heart when its rhythm becomes irregular — deactivated, per The Washington Post. They argued the device could override the effects of the lethal injection drugs and trigger repeated, painful shocks as he died. "I interpret that my client was tortured today," Black's attorney, Kelley Henry, told NBC News. Before the execution, a lower court agreed and ordered the device shut off, according to the AP, but Tennessee's Supreme Court overturned the decision, ruling the judge lacked authority to intervene. Meanwhile, Nashville General Hospital — where Black's device had been implanted — stated it never agreed to deactivate it and declined to participate, citing ethical concerns, according to The Washington legal team also sought clemency, citing his diagnoses of intellectual disability, heart failure, kidney failure and progressive dementia, the AP reported. He was wheelchair-bound at the time of his death and had spent more than three decades on death row, per the final appeals, per the outlet, were denied by both the U.S. Supreme Court and Tennessee Gov. Bill the execution, Black's attorneys said they plan to request a full autopsy and access to the defibrillator's internal data to determine whether it discharged during the procedure, per the Associated was the second person executed in Tennessee this year, following the resumption of executions after a pause owing to problems with its lethal injection protocols. Legal experts and advocacy groups told The Washington Post that Black's case may be the first documented instance of a U.S. execution proceeding with an active implantable defibrillator still in place. Read the original article on People
CNN
21-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Tennessee prepares to execute Oscar Smith, 3 years after last-minute reprieve
Just over three years ago, Oscar Smith came within minutes of being executed before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a surprise reprieve that revealed problems with the lethal injection drugs. On Thursday, the state is prepared to try again. Asked in a recent phone interview about coming so close to death in 2022, Smith declined to reflect very deeply on it but instead expressed a wish that Lee had not intervened, saying the past three years on death row have been 'more than hell.' Without going into specifics, he said conditions at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville have deteriorated, and he accused its officials of not following policies. Smith, 75, said he asked his family to stay away on Thursday and not witness his execution because 'they don't need to see anything like that.' Smith was convicted of fatally stabbing and shooting his estranged wife, Judith Smith, and her sons, Jason and Chad, 13 and 16, at their Nashville home on October 1, 1989. A Davidson County jury sentenced him to death the following year. Some relatives of Smith's victims do plan to attend the execution, Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson Dorinda Carter said in an email. The Associated Press requested to interview relatives through the Tennessee Attorney General's victim services office, but no one agreed to be interviewed. 'My own personal minister will be with me in the execution chamber with her hand on my shoulder praying,' Smith said. He is grateful for that, but also worried about her. 'I'm having a real hard time adjusting to the idea of having a young lady in the execution chamber,' he said. 'She doesn't need any bad experiences.' Smith will be the first Tennessee inmate to be executed under a new lethal injection process released in late December that uses a single dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital. While the method is new to Tennessee, it has been used by other states and the federal government. A review of the drug under President Joe Biden's administration led then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to halt its use in federal executions, finding it had the potential to cause ' unnecessary pain and suffering.' New Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered the Justice Department to reconsider that decision. Smith is suing Tennessee over the update to the execution protocols, arguing TDOC failed to follow the recommendations of a yearlong independent investigation called for by Lee in 2022. However, that trial is not until next January – too late to change anything for Smith. Only Lee has the power to stop the execution. He said on Tuesday that he plans to let it go forward. While lethal injection is the state's preferred method of execution, some Tennessee inmates in recent years have exercised the option of death in the electric chair, expressing the opinion that it would be quicker and less painful. Smith, too, had the option to choose the electric chair, but declined to make a choice. 'Because of my religious beliefs, I wouldn't participate or sign anything,' he said. 'I was taught that taking your own life, or having anything to do with it, is a sin.' Smith has continued to claim that he is innocent. In a phone interview on May 7 – shortly before he was to begin a 14-day period of relative isolation that is part of the new Tennessee execution protocol – Smith mostly wanted to discuss his case and the various ways he feels his trial was unfair. In 2022, a Davidson County Criminal Court judge denied requests to reopen his case after a new type of DNA analysis found the DNA of an unknown person on one of the murder weapons. 'Now that I could rebut everything they used against me, the courts don't want to hear it,' is the way Smith sees it. He says he wants a new trial and 'to be found truly innocent by a jury of my peers.' However, the judge who declined to reopen his case found the evidence of Smith's guilt extensive, citing prior threats and a life insurance policy taken out by Smith for the three victims. Speaking about the execution, Smith said, 'It sounds like we're going back to medieval times, to the gladiators. People want to see blood sports. 'Why anyone wants to see anyone being killed, I don't understand it. We're supposed to be a civilized country.'
Washington Post
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Tennessee prepares to execute Oscar Smith, 3 years after last-minute reprieve
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Just over three years ago, Oscar Smith came within minutes of being executed before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a surprise reprieve that revealed problems with the lethal injection drugs . On Thursday, the state is prepared to try again . Asked in a recent phone interview about coming so close to death in 2022, Smith declined to reflect very deeply on it but instead expressed a wish that Lee had not intervened, saying the past three years on death row have been 'more than hell.' Without going into specifics, he said conditions at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, have deteriorated, and he accused its officials of not following policies.
