Tennessee: Byron Black executed – despite possible complications with his pacemaker
On Tuesday morning, 69-year-old Byron Black was executed by lethal injection, an overdose of pentobarbital, in Nashville in the US state of Tennessee.
He was sentenced to death for shooting his girlfriend and her nine and six-year-old daughters in March 1988. At the time of the crime, Black was on parole after shooting the separated husband and father of her daughters in 1986. The prosecution told the jury during the trial that Black killed his girlfriend out of jealousy over her relationship with her ex-husband.
The planned execution of Byron Black received above-average media coverage. His lawyers, citing fetal alcohol syndrome, pointed out that Byron Black was permanently dependent on support due to his mental impairments. He was in a wheelchair and, according to his lawyers, suffered from dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, heart failure and other illnesses.
The fact that Black had an implanted pacemaker and defibrillator was considered worrying with regard to the execution of his death sentence. A judge initially ordered the device to be deactivated on the morning of the execution. After no clinic or doctor was willing to do so, the courts finally allowed the execution despite fears that the defibrillator could resuscitate the beating heart several times during the killing procedure.
Eyewitnesses to the execution unanimously reported in the subsequent press conference that Black repeatedly raised his head and breathed heavily and moaned for several minutes. At one point he said audibly, “It’s hurting so bad! – It’s hurting so bad!”
A lawyer for Black, who was present during the preparatory measures, also reported that the insertion of the intravenous lines apparently did not go smoothly either. Critics are now eagerly awaiting the autopsy report.
Sources:
https://eu.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2025/08/05/tennessee-execution-byron-black-heart-device/85430521007/
https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-execution-defibrillator-bd1c3d5fcc3dd78faf9fc3ba9a5c7aad
https://eu.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2025/08/05/tennessee-executions-byron-black-death-row/85508079007/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygEkgf0DwmE