Supreme Court Rejects Inmate's Request to Have His Pacemaker Turned Off Before Lethal Injection
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.
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Los Angeles Times
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- Los Angeles Times
Tennessee executes inmate by lethal injection without deactivating his implanted defibrillator
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee executed an inmate Tuesday without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, despite uncertainty about whether the device would shock his heart when the lethal chemicals took effect. Byron Black died at 10:43 a.m., prison officials said. Shortly after the lethal injection started, witnesses said Black told a spiritual advisor in the room that he was hurting so badly. Black looked around the room as the execution started and could be heard sighing and breathing heavily. Black was executed after a back-and-forth in court over whether officials would need to turn off his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD. Black, 69, was in a wheelchair, suffering from dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, congestive heart failure and other conditions, his attorneys have said. The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said it's unaware of any other cases in which an inmate was making similar claims to Black's about ICDs or pacemakers. Black's attorneys said they haven't found a comparable case, either. In mid-July, a trial court judge agreed with Black's attorneys that officials must have the device deactivated to avert the risk that it could cause unnecessary pain and prolong the execution. But the state Supreme Court intervened Thursday to overturn that decision, saying the other judge lacked authority to order the change. The state disputed that the lethal injection would cause Black's defibrillator to shock him and said he wouldn't feel them regardless. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Black's final appeal, and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declined to stop the execution. Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya Clay, 9, and Lakeisha Clay, 6. Prosecutors said he was in a jealous rage when he shot the three at their home. At the time, Black was on work-release while serving time for shooting Clay's estranged husband. It was Tennessee's second execution since May, after a pause for five years, first because of COVID-19 and then because of missteps by state corrections officials. Twenty-eight men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and eight other people are scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025. The number of executions this year exceeds the 25 carried out last year and in 2018. It is the highest total since 2015, when 28 people were put to death. Black had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, which is a small, battery-powered electronic device that is surgically implanted in the chest. It served as a pacemaker and an emergency defibrillator. Black's attorneys have stated that to ensure it's off, a doctor must place a programming device over the implant site, sending it a deactivation command, with no surgery required. Black's attorneys have countered that even if the lethal drug being used, pentobarbital, renders someone unresponsive, they aren't necessarily unaware or unable to feel pain. The legal case also spurred a reminder that most medical professionals consider participation in executions a violation of health care ethics. In recent years, Black's legal team has unsuccessfully tried to get a new hearing over whether he is intellectually disabled and ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court precedent. His attorneys have said that if they had delayed a prior attempt to seek his intellectual disability claim, he would have been spared under a 2021 state law. Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk contended in 2022 that Black is intellectually disabled and deserved a hearing under that 2021 law, but the judge denied it. That is because the 2021 law denies a hearing to people on death row who have already filed a similar request and a court has ruled on it 'on the merits.' In Funk's attempt, he focused on input from an expert for the state in 2004 who determined back then that Black didn't meet the criteria for what was then called 'mental retardation.' But she concluded that Black met the new law's criteria for a diagnosis of intellectual disability. Black also sought a determination by the courts that he was incompetent to be executed. Mattise writes for the Associated Press.
Boston Globe
19 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
What's the deal with all the redistricting talk? A simple guide.
Advertisement It's a lot to untangle, but we'll attempt to do so. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Let's start with the basics. What is redistricting and what's happening in Texas? Per the US Constitution, every 10 years after the census, states must redraw congressional districts to reflect population changes. These districts must be proportional, contiguous, and under federal law, must not be drawn to dilute the voting power of racial groups, but otherwise how they're drawn is up to each state. (Fun fact: Before 1840 some states including Massachusetts didn't have Congressional districts but had every House candidate run at-large.) What's less settled is whether states can redraw districts mid-decade. Some states allow it. Others don't. Texas, which has the second-largest congressional delegation in the country with 38 representatives, is one of the states that does. With Republicans controlling state government, Trump recently urged Texas to redraw its congressional map to give the GOP more right-leaning seats heading into the midterms. Advertisement Texas already had a special legislative session scheduled for August. Republicans used the opportunity to add redistricting to the agenda with a proposed map that would likely net them five additional seats on top of the 25 they currently hold. In response, Texas Democrats did the only thing they could to block the move: They fled the state to blue states—including some The special session ends in two weeks. For now, Texas is at a standstill. So what's going on in California? Once it became clear Texas Republicans were moving forward, California Governor Gavin Newsom and state Democrats responded in kind. If Texas draws five new Republican seats, Newsom said, California would aim to draw five new Democratic ones. But doing this in California is far more complicated. The state currently uses an independent redistricting commission. To override it, lawmakers would need to eliminate the commission through a special session, and then place the measure on a statewide ballot. Newsom said he's open to doing both, including holding a special election in November to let voters decide. Is this just a Texas–California battle? Far from it. Fifteen states are now considering mid-decade redistricting—some inspired by the Texas–California showdown, others acting under court orders. In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul declared, 'This is war. We're at war,' and promised aggressive action on redistricting. But the state constitution limits what Democrats can do. A redistricting change would require passage in two consecutive legislative sessions, followed by voter approval on the ballot. So it's impossible to do ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Advertisement Ohio, meanwhile, is redrawing its map due to a court order, which could lead to Republican gains. Other states considering changes include Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington. There is also a report that Vice President JD Vance may What about New England? Every US House member from New England is a Democrat. The only state where redistricting has surfaced is New Hampshire, where Republicans control the Legislature. They could redraw the line between the state's two House districts to make one more favorable for the GOP. But Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte said in December that the So what does this mean for the midterms? It all hinges on whether Texas acts. If it does, a domino effect could follow. If it doesn't, most other changes will be limited to court-ordered redistricting. Historically, the party out of power makes big gains in the first midterm election of a new president's term. Democrats currently need to flip four seats to regain the House majority in 2026. Under various discussed maps, they could instead need to flip seven—or in Democrats' worst-case scenario—twelve. Republicans flipped nine seats in the last midterms, giving them a margin so slim it doomed their speaker. In 2018, Democrats gained 40 seats. Advertisement Wait… what does Massachusetts have to do with this? In a CNBC interview on Tuesday morning, Trump denied that he initiated the current redistricting push. 'They did it to us, the blue states you were talking about,' Trump said, after the host referenced California's plans. 'Somebody gave a good example. In Massachusetts, I got, I think, 41 percent of the vote, a very blue state, and yet [Democrats] got 100 percent of Congress. One hundred percent. I got 40, 41 percent or something, and yet 100 percent of Congress in Massachusetts? No, it shouldn't be that way.' (For the record: Trump received 36% of the vote in Massachusetts in 2024.) James Pindell is a Globe political reporter who reports and analyzes American politics, especially in New England.
