Barring a reprieve, Byron Black’s execution will go forward amid concerns implanted defibrillator will shock his heart
Tennessee is set to execute an inmate on Tuesday without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, as uncertainty lingers about whether the device will shock his heart when a lethal drug takes effect.
Barring a late reprieve requested from the governor or the courts, Byron Black’s execution will go forward after a legal back-and-forth over whether the state would need to turn off his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD. The non-profit Death Penalty Information Center said it’s unaware of any other cases in which an inmate was making similar claims to Black about ICDs or pacemakers.
The execution would be Tennessee’s second since May, after a pause for five years, first because of Covid-19 and then because of missteps by the Tennessee department of correction.
Twenty-seven men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the US, and nine other people are scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025. The number of executions this year exceeds the 25 carried out last year and in 2018. It is the highest total since 2015, when 28 people were put to death.
