US EditionGov. Bill Lee Declines to Intervene in Byron Black Execution
DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE, AUG 4 – Byron Black faces execution despite documented intellectual disability and deteriorating health, with legal challenges and over 5,000 petition signatures seeking clemency ahead of lethal injection.
- At Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, Byron Black is set to be executed by lethal injection on Aug. 5, shortly after 10 a.m.
- Following the murders, Black faced trial, and a Nashville jury convicted him and sentenced him to death in 1989.
- Amid mounting health concerns, filings show Black’s attorneys say he has an IQ below 70 since 1993, worsened by dementia, end-stage kidney disease, congestive heart failure, and a defibrillator risk.
- Protestors will hold a vigil at Riverbend on Aug. 5, with petitions over 5,000 signatures and only Governor Bill Lee or the U.S. Supreme Court can stop the execution.
- A successful execution would mark Tennessee’s first of an intellectually disabled person in the modern era and the 28th nationwide in 2025, the most active year in a decade.
11 Articles
11 Articles
Supreme Court, Governor Decline to Block Execution
The US Supreme Court and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declined to intervene on Monday, leaving the state free to proceed to execute Byron Black on Tuesday morning without disabling implanted defibrillator. Black's lawyers say the injection could repeatedly shock his heart if the cardioverter-defibrillator is still functioning, the AP reports,...
Supreme Court Rejects Inmate’s Request to Have His Pacemaker Turned Off Before Lethal Injection
The U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 4 declined to stay the execution of a Tennessee inmate whose lawyers argued his pacemaker may cause him pain by shocking him during the execution process. Byron Lewis Black is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Aug. 5. On the evening of Aug. 4, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, said he would not grant Black a reprieve. The nation’s highest court rejected without comment several filings seeking to …
Advocates to deliver petitions urging Gov. Bill Lee to halt Byron Black's execution
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Anti-death penalty advocates, including the son of an inmate scheduled to be executed this week, gathered Monday morning at the Tennessee Capitol, urging Gov. Bill Lee to halt the execution of Byron Black. The son of Byron Black, Samson Childs, is asking for Lee to grant mercy by commuting his father's death sentence to life in prison with no possibility for parole. Black is scheduled to be put to death on Tuesday, Aug.…
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