Byron Black, a man convicted of murder 40 years ago, is scheduled to be executed on August 5, 2025, despite his documented intellectual disability and serious medical complications, which have been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Attorneys for Byron Black, a 66-year-old man on Tennessee’s death row, have filed a motion for a stay of his execution due to the potential for his implanted defibrillator to trigger a prolonged and gruesome death.
Byron Lewis Black, a death-sentenced man in Tennessee, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution and review his case on the grounds that he is constitutionally ineligible for execution due to intellectual disability, which the State of Tennessee has conceded, but Tennessee courts have denied relief due to procedural bars.
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.
Medicaid is a crucial tool in crime prevention, and proposed cuts to the program could have devastating consequences, including an increase in crime rates.
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.
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by Bianca Fortis ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter…