By Vanguard Staff
NASHVILLE, TN – Facing an August 5 execution date, Byron Black, a severely ill Tennessee death row prisoner, has filed an urgent motion in Davidson County Chancery Court seeking a preliminary injunction that would require the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) to deactivate his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) at the exact moment of execution.
Without intervention, his attorneys argue, the execution could devolve into a gruesome and unconstitutional ordeal marked by repeated defibrillator shocks, prolonged suffering, and a medically preventable spectacle of pain.
The ICD was implanted in Mr. Black in May 2024 to treat his congestive heart failure and protect him from sudden cardiac arrest. The device monitors his heart rhythm and, if it detects a dangerous arrhythmia, it delivers electric shocks to restore a normal heartbeat. But in the context of a lethal injection using pentobarbital—a sedative known to rapidly lower blood pressure and heart rate—the very function of the ICD could transform the execution into a nightmarish cycle of revival attempts.
As the pentobarbital depresses Mr. Black’s cardiovascular system, the ICD would interpret these effects as a medical emergency and trigger defibrillation, sending repeated and painful electric shocks in a futile effort to save a life that the state is actively ending.
According to the motion and accompanying legal memorandum, the repeated defibrillation during execution would cause the heart to continue pumping deoxygenated blood and poison into Mr. Black’s lungs, triggering flash pulmonary edema—a condition that causes severe chest pain and respiratory distress as fluid builds up in the lungs. As the lethal drug continues to circulate through the bloodstream, the shocks would prolong the dying process, paradoxically delaying death while inflicting excruciating suffering.
The filings make clear that this outcome is not speculative but supported by well-established medical evidence, with one study cited noting that heart electrical activity can persist up to 30 minutes at the end of life. With an active ICD, the filing argues, this period could be even longer.
Attorney Kelley Henry, who represents Mr. Black, said in a statement, “Unless the ICD is properly deactivated at the moment of execution, Byron Black’s execution will be a gruesome spectacle. The TDOC implanted this device and it now wants to torture Mr. Black to death as his heart restarts, prolonging the execution and increasing the likelihood of excruciating pain due to flash pulmonary edema.”
Mr. Black’s current medical condition is dire. In addition to congestive heart failure, he suffers from advanced dementia, brain damage, and end-stage kidney disease. He has been formally diagnosed with intellectual disability, a condition which, under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, renders him ineligible for execution. A separate appeal seeking a hearing on his competency to be executed is pending before the Tennessee Supreme Court. Despite these conditions, the state has continued to pursue execution, even as Mr. Black’s physical and cognitive deterioration raises profound legal and ethical questions.
According to the legal filings, there is only one medically safe and reliable way to deactivate Mr. Black’s ICD: through a specialized process called the “interrogator method,” which requires proprietary software and hardware from the device’s manufacturer. The procedure must be performed by a cardiologist or a technician trained and supervised by one. The filings explain that deactivating the device before the execution would put Mr. Black at immediate risk of sudden cardiac death or stroke, as the device was implanted precisely to protect him from fatal arrhythmias. The only constitutionally permissible time to deactivate the ICD, his legal team argues, is simultaneously with the administration of the lethal injection.
Despite the stakes, the Tennessee Department of Correction has thus far refused to acknowledge any need to accommodate Mr. Black’s medical reality. In response to a formal inquiry from Mr. Black’s attorneys, TDOC wrote on June 23 that it “does not believe the Eighth Amendment necessitates any alternative plan or actions to carry out Mr. Black’s execution outside the processes described in the Protocol.” The filings note that TDOC’s execution protocol includes no provision for addressing the presence of an ICD or other complex medical devices in condemned prisoners, reflecting what Henry called a “one-size-fits-all” approach that ignores the unique medical vulnerabilities of individuals like Mr. Black.
Mr. Black’s motion asks the court to intervene and order TDOC to engage qualified personnel to deactivate the ICD at the precise moment the execution is carried out. Anything less, his attorneys argue, would constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
“Byron’s execution carries so many risks,” said Henry. “He is elderly, frail, and cognitively impaired; there’s no principled reason to move forward with this torturous procedure. But if Tennessee is going to kill this fragile old man, TDOC must bring in a trained professional to properly deactivate the ICD at the moment the execution is carried out.”
The motion is scheduled for hearing on July 14.
