Byron Black, a 69-year-old man on Tennessee’s death row, has formally petitioned Governor Bill Lee to commute his death sentence to life without the possibility of parole due to his intellectual disability and severe health conditions.
Tennessee death row prisoner Byron Black has filed a motion to deactivate his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) at the moment of execution, as it could cause a gruesome spectacle of pain and suffering if it were to be activated during the lethal injection.
Byron Black, a 68-year-old man on Tennessee’s death row, has filed a petition with the Tennessee Supreme Court to halt his execution due to extensive medical evidence of intellectual disability, brain damage, dementia, and multiple life-threatening physical illnesses.
Tennessee plaintiffs are challenging the state’s attempt to keep secret information about its lethal injection protocol, including the sourcing of execution drugs, and are seeking a delay in executions until a full trial can be held.
Attorneys for Tennessee death row men Oscar Smith and Byron Black are calling on Governor Bill Lee to issue a temporary halt on executions until March 2026, when a trial on the constitutionality of the state’s new lethal injection protocol is set to begin, due to concerns about the new protocol’s lack of safeguards.