By Vanguard Staff
NASHVILLE, TN — Attorneys for Byron Black, a 68-year-old man on Tennessee’s death row, filed a petition Monday asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to intervene and require a lower court to evaluate whether he is legally competent to be executed. Black is currently scheduled to die on August 5, despite extensive medical evidence of intellectual disability, brain damage, dementia, and multiple life-threatening physical illnesses.
The filing argues that Black is “non compos mentis” — a centuries-old legal standard meaning unable to understand the nature or reason for one’s punishment — and therefore ineligible for execution under both U.S. Supreme Court precedent and the original understanding of the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. The petition urges the state’s highest court to order a new hearing to evaluate his competency under modern medical and legal standards.
“The State of Tennessee stipulated that Byron Black is a person with intellectual disability,” said Kelley Henry, one of Black’s attorneys. “He also has progressive dementia and severe brain atrophy, which combine into a devastating impact on his cognitive functioning. All we are asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to do is direct the trial court to consider the evidence proving Byron’s incompetency under long-settled standards.”
Henry added: “Byron simply does not have the intellectual capacity to grasp why the State seeks to kill him, so his execution serves no legitimate penological purpose. It’s just cruel.”
Black’s attorneys submitted extensive medical documentation showing that his memory, reasoning, language, and daily functioning rank in the bottom 1% to 5% of individuals his age. According to the brief, fewer than one in 10,000 people perform worse than Black on standardized neuropsychological tests of language fluency. His expressive language skills are “profoundly disabled,” and he is unable to articulate basic concepts necessary to comprehend legal proceedings.
Brain scans show that Black has suffered significant atrophy over time. His current brain volume is more than three standard deviations below average — a level consistent with major neurocognitive disorders and possibly linked to a neurodegenerative process. These impairments likely stem from prenatal alcohol exposure, lead poisoning, and repeated head trauma throughout his life.
Although the state stipulated in 2022 that Black meets the criteria for intellectual disability, Tennessee courts have refused to revisit his 2004 disability hearing, which relied on outdated diagnostic standards and minimal evidence. Black’s attorneys argue that the state’s own stipulation, along with mounting evidence of his decline, mandates a new hearing to assess whether he is currently competent to be executed.
In addition to his cognitive and psychiatric impairments, Black suffers from advanced physical illnesses, including congestive heart failure and stage 4 kidney disease. He recently underwent surgeries to implant a defibrillator, repair a broken hip, and prepare for dialysis. These conditions, his attorneys argue, further demonstrate that Black is not only mentally incompetent but physically frail, and his execution would serve no rational purpose.
The full brief filed by Black’s legal team is available here.
