NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - The attorney for executed death row inmate Byron Black is providing more information about the execution in regards to the debated implanted defibrillator being deactivated or not.
The Tennessee Supreme Court denied the deactivation of Black's defibrillator, regardless of his attorney's constant pushing for it and even a ruling from the Davidson County Chancery Court for deactivation.
So, on August 5, the 69-year-old was put to death by lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville for murdering his girlfriend, 29-year-old Angela Clay, and her daughters, 9-year-old Latoya and 6-year-old Lakeisha.
Now, days later, his attorney has released a statement confirming that the implanted defibrillator did not shock Black during his execution.
"Initial evaluation of the data from Mr. Black's ICD shows that it did not shock him during the execution. While this eliminates one of the possible causes of the reason that Mr. Black lifted his head, groaned, and cried out in pain after the execution began, it leaves many questions unanswered. We are told that it will take 8-12 weeks before the autopsy report will be released and we hope to have more information at that time. We will also be seeking information through public records requests to piece together exactly what went wrong during Mr. Black's execution. 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," Kelley Henry shared.
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Black was declared dead at 10:43 a.m. with no last words spoken.
Following the execution, media witnesses said that Black appeared to be in discomfort.
"Today, the state of Tennessee killed a gentle, kind, fragile, intellectually disabled man in a violation of the laws of our country simply because they could," Henry said after the execution.