Tennessee Court Orders Heart Defibrillator Disconnected Ahead of Byron Black’s Scheduled Execution

On July 18, 2025, the Davidson County Chancery Court issued a pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion requir­ing the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) to ensure that Byron Black’s implant­ed heart device (car­diac implantable elec­tron­ic device, or CIED) is switched off just ahead of his exe­cu­tion by a car­diac spe­cial­ist or qual­i­fied tech­ni­cian work­ing under such super­vi­sion. In June 2025, coun­sel for Mr. Black filed a motion for a pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion, explain­ing that because of his CIED, he faces a severe risk of a ​“pro­longed” and ​“tor­tur­ous” exe­cu­tion, as the lethal injec­tion drugs can trig­ger the emer­gency func­tion of the CIED to shock his heart repeat­ed­ly, attempt­ing to restore a nor­mal heart­beat. Attorneys for the state argued that the CIED’s emer­gency func­tion cre­ates nei­ther a risk of a ​“pro­longed” nor ​“tor­tur­ous” execution.

In his order, Chancellor Russell T. Perkins agreed with Mr. Black’s attor­neys that he faces the ​“risk of irrepara­ble harm if his CIED device is not deac­ti­vat­ed.” The order goes on to note that ​“This risk can be com­plete­ly avoid­ed by deac­ti­vat­ing Mr. Black’s CIED device short­ly before or at the point of admin­is­trat­ing the lethal injec­tion” and that doing so would not pose ​“any undue admin­is­tra­tive or logis­ti­cal burden…on the State.” Mr. Black is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on August 5, 2025, even though state experts have rec­og­nized his intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, and he suf­fers from severe demen­tia, sig­nif­i­cant brain injury, heart fail­ure, and ter­mi­nal kidney disease.

In response to Chancellor Perkins’ rul­ing, the state told the court they could not locate a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al will­ing and qual­i­fied to turn off Mr. Black’s CIED in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber at the time of the exe­cu­tion, but they could do so ahead of the exe­cu­tion. During a hear­ing on July 22, Tennessee Deputy Attorney General Cody Brandon said Mr. Black’s physi­cians were unwill­ing to go to the exe­cu­tion cham­ber and asked Chancellor Perkins to over­turn his order or to allow TDOC to bring Mr. Black to the hos­pi­tal for deac­ti­va­tion of his CIED the day before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion. Kelley Henry, Mr. Black’s attor­ney, told the court she alert­ed TDOC of her con­cerns with Mr. Black’s CIED in ear­ly June, but it was not until the issuance of Chancellor Perkins’ July 18 order that they start­ed to search for a doc­tor will­ing to dis­able the CIED.

Following the hear­ing, Chancellor Perkins mod­i­fied his order, allow­ing TDOC to deac­ti­vate Mr. Black’s CIED as ear­ly as the morn­ing of his sched­uled exe­cu­tion, at Nashville General Hospital. He not­ed in his rul­ing that a doc­tor who tes­ti­fied for Mr. Black said deac­ti­vat­ing the CIED does not require surgery, only a hand­held device. Chancellor Perkins also not­ed Mr. Black may not be forced to con­sent to the deac­ti­va­tion of his CIED, as it cre­ates the risk that his heart will go into fail­ure while a stay or reprieve could be issued. 

Mr. Black has also filed a clemen­cy appli­ca­tion, ask­ing Governor Bill Lee to com­mute his death sen­tence to life impris­on­ment with­out parole to ensure his exe­cu­tion does not vio­late the Constitution. Every expert that has met with and exam­ined Mr. Black has agreed he is a per­son with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, and thus, is inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty under the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing in Atkins v. Virginia. In 2022, the Davidson County District Attorney agreed that Mr. Black has intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty; how­ev­er, the courts have refused to con­sid­er the state’s find­ing because of a pro­ce­dur­al bar­ri­er. In 2021, Tennessee law­mak­ers passed leg­is­la­tion pro­vid­ing death row pris­on­ers with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to have a hear­ing to con­sid­er claims of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. Mr. Black sought a hear­ing under this new leg­is­la­tion and at that time, the state’s expert con­clud­ed Mr. Black is a per­son with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. Despite the expert’s find­ings, the court refused to allow a hear­ing for Mr. Black, rea­son­ing that he already had a hear­ing regard­ing his intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty claim two decades ear­li­er, before the new law was enacted.

According to the clemen­cy peti­tion, ​“If the exe­cu­tion is allowed to move for­ward, Byron Black would be the first intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled per­son exe­cut­ed by Tennessee in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty.” The peti­tion also notes that Mr. Black is the only per­son on Tennessee’s death row who has been denied the ben­e­fits of the 2021 leg­is­la­tion sim­ply because he dili­gent­ly pur­sued intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty claims ear­li­er, based on now out­dat­ed and invalid med­ical and sci­en­tif­ic con­clu­sions. Because of his ear­li­er dili­gence, ​“Mr. Black finds him­self in a con­sti­tu­tion­al catch-22: ​“He did every­thing right. And because he did, he stands to be exe­cut­ed because the courts can­not find a home for his claim.”