State Appeals Injunction Allowing for TN Death Row Inmate’s Implanted Defibrillator to Be Deactivated for Execution

State appeals injunction allowing for TN death row inmate’s implanted defibrillator to be deactivated for execution

In the appeal, TDOC says it’s seeking to lift the injunction and proceed with the execution without deactivating the device.

What we know about Byron Black’s execution in Tennessee

The Tennessee Supreme Court will determine whether the Department of Correction must disable Byron Black's heart implant before executing him.(Rachel Iacovone / WPLN News)Black was convicted in 1989 of murdering his girlfriend, Angela Clay, and her two young daughters, Latoya and Lakeisha.With the execution just over a week away, Black’s attorneys and the state are battling over how his intellectual disability and medical heart implant could fac…

Turning off inmate's heart device to avoid shock risk at execution would cause chaos, Tennessee attorneys say

Byron Black, who has an implanted cardioverter-defibrillator, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Aug. 5.

TDOC appeals court ruling on inmate’s defibrillator procedure before execution

The Tennessee Supreme Court is now reviewing a lower court ruling involving death row inmate, Byron Black.

Tennessee Court Orders Heart Defibrillator Disconnected Ahead of Byron Black’s Scheduled Execution | Death Penalty Information Center

On July 18, 2025, the Davidson County Chancery Court issued a pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion requir­ing the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) to ensure that Byron Black’s implant­ed heart device (car­diac implantable elec­tron­ic device, or CIED) is switched off just ahead of his exe­cu­tion by a car­diac spe­cial­ist or qual­i­fied tech­ni­cian work­ing under such super­vi­sion. In June 2025, coun­sel for Mr. Black filed a motion for a pre…

Tennessee contests turning off inmate's heart device before execution

A judge's order to take a Tennessee death row inmate to the hospital on the morning of his execution so doctors can would cause "chaos," state attorneys said in an appeal.The argument was one of several in a filing Wednesday that seeks to overturn an order to deactivate Byron Black's implanted…