A Davidson County Chancery Court judge says the state of Tennessee must disconnect a death row inmate’s heart defibrillator shortly before his August execution to prevent the risk of a prolonged and painful death.
Byron Black, 68, is set to be executed on Aug. 5 for the Nashville 1987 murders of his ex-girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakesha, 6.
Black, one of the state’s longest serving death row inmates, suffers from congestive heart failure. He has an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) that maintains his heartbeat, much like a pacemaker.
His lawyers on June 30 filed a request for a preliminary injunction asking the Tennessee Department of Corrections to ensure that his ICD is deactivated in the moments before his execution by lethal injection out of fear that the device could shock his heart repeatedly, prolonging his death.
In a ruling late July 18, Chancellor Russell T. Perkins granted the request, stating that Black was likely to face significant harm unless the state made necessary arrangements to ensure his ICD is deactivated at the moment of his execution.
“The Court concludes that Mr. Black has made a sufficient showing of a risk of irreparable harm if his CIED device is not deactivated,” Perkins wrote in his ruling. “This risk can be completely avoided by deactivating Mr. Black’s CIED device shortly before or at the point of administrating the lethal injection, without any undue administrative or logistical burden being placed on the State.”
The ruling came following a three-day hearing in which experts on both sides testified as to how Black’s heart device would react under lethal injection.
On Black’s side, Dr. Gail Van Norman, an anesthesiology professor at the University of Washington, testified that Black could experience extremely painful, repeated shocks from the device as the lethal injection drug works its way through his system. The state had argued that Black would be unconscious and unlikely to feel pain.
Black’s lawyer, Kelley Henry, a supervisory assistant federal public defender, in a statement said she is relieved that the judge recognized the “very real risk” that executing Black without deactivating his heart device “would result in disaster.”
“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,” she said. “Today’s ruling averts that torturous outcome.”
Black’s execution is set to move unforward unless the U.S. Supreme Court or the governor intervenes. On July 7, his lawyers filed a clemency petition with Gov. Bill Lee seeking to commute his sentence to life without parole, citing the state’s finding that Black is intellectually disabled.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Judge grants Nashville death row inmate’s request to disconnect heart device before execution