Heart device didn’t shock distressed inmate during execution, lawyer says

A Tennessee prisoner, who complained of pain as witnesses said he showed signs of distress during his execution this week, was not shocked by his implanted heart device as he died, his lawyer said Friday.

Kelley Henry, a federal public defender representing Byron Black, said early data retrieved from his implanted cardiac device (ICD) shows it didn’t shock him. But something clearly went wrong during the lethal injection Tuesday, when Black “lifted his head, groaned, and cried out in pain after the execution began,” Henry said in a statement.

Henry added that Black’s legal team is ordering a full autopsy and seeking information on the execution via public records requests.

“But make no mistake, we all saw with our own eyes that the pentobarbital did not work like the State’s expert testified that it would. Mr. Black suffered,” Henry said in the statement.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R) did not respond Friday to a request for comment.

The question over whether Black’s ICD would shock him during lethal injection ignited a first-of-its-kind legal battle, which itself came amid a lawsuit against the Tennessee Department of Correction over the single-drug execution protocol it switched to last year. The lawsuit filed by Black and eight other prisoners on Tennessee’s death row centered on the state’s use of the drug pentobarbital, arguing it creates a “high risk of a torturous death.” Black is the second plaintiff to be executed before the trial, scheduled for January, begins.

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled last week that the state prison did not have to deactivate Black’s device just before his execution. He had been on death row for the murders of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, 29; and her daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakeisha, 6, in the 1980s.

Black, 69, showed signs of distress during his execution, including sighing heavily, panting and raising and lowering his head after the intravenous drug flow began, according to journalist witnesses who spoke at a news briefing afterward.

“It’s hurting so bad,” Black said at one point, according to the witnesses. They said the Rev. Monica Coakley, Black’s spiritual adviser who was with him in the death chamber, replied, “I’m so sorry.” Witnesses said Coakley sang to Black, touching his face.

Steve Cavendish, editor of the Nashville Banner and one of the journalist witnesses, said those witnesses were in “unanimous” agreement that they heard Black in distress.

Black, who used a wheelchair, suffered from dementia, kidney disease and brain damage, in addition to his heart issue and other diseases. Court records indicate he had an intellectual disability, with an IQ below 70.

Black’s lawyers unsuccessfully argued that he should be ineligible for execution, given his intellectual disability, and that he would not be on death row if he were sentenced under modern standards. The U.S. Supreme Court did not ban the execution of people with intellectual disabilities until 2002, several years after Black was sentenced.

An autopsy report is expected to be released in eight to 12 weeks, Henry said.