US court says man with defibrillator can be executed despite concerns

Despite concerns that the implanted defibrillator could lead to a botched execution, a court in the state of Tennessee in southern the US has ruled that the state of Tennessee can proceed with the execution of a man.

Byron Black, who was found guilty of a triple murder in 1988, is currently on death row in the Tennessee Supreme Court’s case on Thursday.

Although Black’s execution has been postponed numerous times, a lethal injection date was set for August 5th.

However, his defense team claimed in July that Black’s defibrillator should be deactivated in order for the execution to continue because it would shock his heart as he passed away, leading to a painful and drawn-out execution.

Prior to his execution, Davidson County Chancery Court Judge Russell Perkins had previously decided that Black’s defibrillator must be taken out.

The Tennessee Supreme Court overturned that ruling, contending that removing the defibrillator in advance would be considered a “stay of execution.”

The lower court’s decision, according to the state justices, was invalid because it had overstepped its bounds.

One of Black’s attorneys, Kelley Henry, stated that she is reviewing the opinion before deciding what to do next.

The state’s attorneys claimed on Wednesday that healthcare professionals were hesitant to help with the defibrillator’s removal because many of them saw participation in the execution process as a violation of medical ethics.

The court did not address concerns about whether Black’s constitutional right to avoid cruel and unusual punishment might be violated by the device’s complications during the execution. Additionally, it made the possibility that Black could still receive a pardon for his execution open.

In the US, one of the few Western nations still using the death penalty, botched executions have been a source of debate for years.

Lethal injection and electrocution are frequently error-prone methods of capital punishment, which can sometimes lead to painful, drawn-out prisoner deaths.

According to a report released in 2022 by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), “seven out of 22 attempted executions in the US” were “visibly problematic” and included “executioner incompetence, failures to follow protocols, or defects in the protocols themselves.”

The US executed 24 people in 2023, which is the third-highest number of confirmed executions in the world, after Iran and Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International. After China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia, the US received the fifth-highest number of death sentences.