Tennessee man executed while his defibrillator remained active cried out in pain as he died, witnesses say

Byron Black was put to death despite uncertainty about whether the device would shock his heart when the lethal chemicals took effect.

An inmate executed by the state of Tennessee reportedly cried out in pain shortly after the lethal injection began, with witnesses claiming he was "hurting so bad" despite an implanted defibrillator remaining active. Byron Black's death has sparked controversy, as he was put to death amid uncertainty over whether the device would shock his heart as the lethal chemicals took effect.

Prison officials confirmed Black died at 10:43 a.m., approximately 10 minutes after the execution commenced. Asked for any last words, he replied, "No sir." As the process began, Black was observed looking around the room, lifting his head off the gurney multiple times, sighing and breathing heavily. All seven media witnesses present agreed he appeared to be in discomfort. A spiritual advisor prayed and sang over Black throughout the execution, at one point touching his face.

"Oh, it's hurting so bad," Black was heard to say, restrained to the gurney with an IV line in his arm. The advisor responded, "I'm so sorry. Just listen to my voice."

The execution proceeded despite a protracted legal battle over whether officials should have deactivated his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). Black, 69, was in a wheelchair and suffered from numerous severe health conditions, including dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, and congestive heart failure, according to his attorneys. A trial court judge had initially agreed with Black's legal team that the defibrillator should be deactivated to prevent unnecessary pain and prolonging the execution. However, Tennessee's Supreme Court overturned this decision, stating the lower court lacked authority. The state had argued that the lethal injection would not cause the defibrillator to shock him, or that he would not feel it if it did.

Black's attorney, Kelley Henry, condemned the execution, stating: "Today, the state of Tennessee killed a gentle, kind, fragile, intellectually disabled man in a violation of the laws of our country simply because they could." Ms Henry expressed particular concern over Black's head movement and complaints of pain, noting that the massive dose of pentobarbital used in lethal injections is intended to induce rapid unconsciousness. "The fact that he was able to raise his head several times and express pain tells you that the pentobarbital was not acting the way the state's experts claim it acts," she added. Prison officials have not commented on the witnesses' observations or Black's complaints of pain. Ms Henry confirmed that Black's defence team would meticulously review autopsy results, EKG data, and information from the defibrillator to ascertain the precise events during the execution.

Black was convicted for the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakeisha, 6. Prosecutors alleged he acted in a jealous rage, having been on work-release at the time, serving a sentence for shooting Ms Clay's estranged husband. Linette Bell, Angela Clay's sister, stated after the execution: "His family is now going through the same thing we went through 37 years ago. I can't say I'm sorry because we never got an apology."

Black's legal team had previously made unsuccessful attempts to secure a new hearing regarding his intellectual disability, which they contend he has exhibited since childhood. Individuals with intellectual disabilities are constitutionally barred from execution in the US. His attorneys argued that a delay in an earlier attempt to raise this claim would have spared him under a 2021 state law, which denies hearings to death row inmates who have already had a similar request ruled upon "on the merits." Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk's attempt to secure a new hearing for Black was denied, despite an expert who had previously determined Black did not meet the criteria for "mental retardation" in 2004, now concluding he met the new law's criteria for an intellectual disability diagnosis.

The non-profit Death Penalty Information Centre and Black's attorneys have stated they are unaware of any other cases involving similar claims regarding implanted defibrillators or pacemakers during executions. The legal case also served as a reminder that most medical professionals consider participation in executions a violation of healthcare ethics. This marks Tennessee's second execution since May, following a five-year hiatus due to Covid-19 and state corrections officials' missteps. So far this year, 28 individuals have been executed by court order in the US, surpassing the 25 carried out last year and in 2018, and representing the highest total since 2015.

Source: independent.co.uk, Jonathan Matisse, August 5, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Comments

Florida | Former prison warden who oversaw executions urges corrections workers to not participate in them

Recently Florida carried out the execution of Dusty Spencer , a 74-year-old Marine veteran, for the murder of his wife, Karen, in 1992. It was the ninth Florida execution this year. For their own sake, I urge Florida’s corrections workers to refuse to carry out another one. Before you dismiss me as some soft lefty, you should know that I am an Air Force veteran. I voted for Ron DeSantis for governor twice—and for Donald Trump for president three times.

Iraq: Saddam Hussein Execution was Moved Forward Because of Gaddafi Rescue Plans, Judge Says

Saddam Hussein's execution on December 30, 2006 The execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was accelerated due to the belief that the then Libyan leader, Muammar El-Gaddafi, had a plan to rescue him from prison, Judge Mounir Haddad revealed today. Hadad, who presided over the trial of Hussein, revealed to the Al-Arabiya Satellite Channel Point of Order program new details of the trial against the former president and his last moments before being hanged, including the 'health and welfare' votes for the magistrate himself . According to his testimony, the application of the death penalty to Saddam Hussein was precipitated because authorities knew that El-Gaddafi - later murdered in 2011 - was allegedly trying to bribe US guards who guarded him to rescue him from prison. He added that, contrary to previous reports from the local and US press, former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani gave his 'implicit approval' for Hussein's execution, an...

Iran: Delara Darabi has now been scheduled for execution

Delara Darabi has now been scheduled for execution, according to the Iranian newspaper Etemad on 18 April, according to another source on 20 April. She was convicted of murdering a relative when she was 17. Unless the Judiciary intervenes, she can now escape execution only if the woman’s entire family accept payment of diyeh, or blood money. One of the familly is said to be undecided. Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibit the use of the death penalty against people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible: - expressing concern that Delara Darabi is in imminent danger of execution for a crime committed when she was under 18; - calling on the authorities to halt the execution of Delara Darabi immediately, and commute her death sentence; - reminding the authorities that Iran is a state part...

Tibetan protesters executed for Lhasa riot killings

Tibetan exiles have reported the first executions of those convicted for rioting last year in Lhasa, with at least two people put to death in a rare implementation of capital punishment in the restive region. Two Tibetans convicted of arson and sentenced to death in April were executed on Tuesday morning in Lhasa, reported The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, which is based in the Indian town of Dharamsala—the home in exile of the Dalai Lama. It said that Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak had been sentenced to death for their part in setting fire to five shops in the Tibetan capital, killing seven people, in the riot that rocked Lhasa in March last year. Officials say that 21 people — including three Tibetan protesters — died in the violence, which embarrassed Beijing just as it was preparing to stage the Olympic Games and prompted a security crackdown across the Himalayan region. The body of Mr. Gyaltsen had been returned to his family and then submitted to a river burial—an un...

Iran: Prisoner of conscience Mohsen Amir Aslani hanged for ‘different interpretation of Quran’

Mohsen Amir Aslani NCRI - The Iranian Resistance calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council, as well as all international human rights organizations to strongly condemn the execution of prisoner of conscience Mr Mohsen Amir Aslani on charges of “corruption on earth; changing Islam’s principles and secondary laws; and new interpretation of Quran”. It further calls for adoption of binding decisions against the growing number of arbitrary executions by the religious fascism ruling Iran. Mr. Amir Aslani, 37, who had been in prison since eight years ago, was once sentenced to four years in prison which was later commuted to twenty-eight months. However, as more fabricated charges were brought against him, the head henchman Judge Salavati condemned him to death. The Iranian regime has refraining from handing over the body of this prisoner to his family through stonewalling and offering contradictory answers to them. The execution...

Louisiana Supreme Court Frees Death Row Prisoner, Calling Evidence Against Him “Scientifically Indefensible”

The decision affirms a lower court’s ruling nullifying Jimmie “Chris” Duncan’s 1998 first-degree murder conviction. Duncan was convicted based in part on forensic evidence that is now widely regarded as junk science. Former Louisiana death row inmate Jimmie “Chris” Duncan is officially a free man following a unanimous ruling Monday by the Louisiana Supreme Court. In the opinion, justices upheld a lower court’s decision to toss out Duncan’s 1998 conviction for killing his former girlfriend’s toddler, Haley Oliveaux, citing flawed forensics practices used to convict him.

Thailand | Australian man charged with murder after dead 17-year-old girl found in suitcase

An Australian man has been charged with murder after the body of a 17-year-old girl was found in a suitcase in Thailand. Police in the coastal city of Pattaya said they found Tunchanok Donhomla "stuffed" in the bag, which had been discarded near a railway track, in the early hours of Saturday. Thai police said they arrested Simon Peter Carman at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport in connection with the death as he was allegedly "preparing to flee the country." He denies the charges. In a message issued to the victim's family after his arrest, Carman said: "I feel bad for what happened to your daughter. It was out of my control."

Halfway through the year, Saudi Arabia has already executed nearly 100 people

Almost 100 people executed so far this year as dozens more remain on death row for drug-related offences Saudi Arabian authorities have executed nearly 100 people so far this year, including at least 61 for drug-related offences, the latest of which was on 18 June. In response, Dana Ahmed, Middle East Researcher at Amnesty International, said today: “It is halfway through the year and Saudi Arabia has executed nearly 100 people, a grim milestone exposing the authorities’ unconscionable and unlawful use of the death penalty. Of the 96 people put to death already in 2026, an astounding 61 were executed for drug-related offences; 39 of them were foreign nationals and 22 Saudi nationals.

Florida executes Dusty Ray Spencer

74-year-old man becomes oldest inmate executed in modern Florida history A 74-year-old man convicted of fatally stabbing his wife became the oldest person executed in Florida’s modern history on Thursday, and the state is scheduled to execute another 74-year-old inmate next month. Dusty Ray Spencer was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Spencer was convicted of the 1992 stabbing death of his wife Karen.

Tennessee Reduced Training in IV Placement in New Lethal Injection Protocol

The protocol that took effect in 2025 sheds new light on Tony Carruthers’ botched execution, when Dr. Mark Fowler spent nearly an hour trying, and failing, to place a secondary IV line Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol adopted a year and a half ago appears to include reduced training in IV placement. That’s the part of the process prison staff failed to complete last month before aborting the execution of Tony Carruthers. Filings from ongoing litigation over the protocol show concerns about the executioners’ training and qualifications aren’t new.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog