At about 10 a.m. EDT, the state of Tennessee use an overdose of pentobarbital to kill Byron Black for murdering his girlfriend and her two daughters. But this state-ordered killing was far different than any other lethal injection in thee United States.
Black, who suffered from dementia, brain damage, kidney disease and allegedly intellectually disability, had another medical condition that was the nexus of this controversial execution — congestive heart failure. And because of that disease, Black also had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. The device would shock the heart when it detected cardiac problems and those shocks designed to restart the heart are known to be painful.
Several attempts to get a court to order the device be disabled ahead of the lethal injection ended with the Tennessee Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the killing could proceed with the device active. Bill Lee, the Tennessee governor, refused to intervene. As The Associate Press reported, “Byron Black was put to death despite uncertainty about whether the device would shock his heart when the lethal chemicals took effect.”
In my view, “uncertainty” was the wrong word. There was no doubt that the shocks would be painful and would be triggered as the pentobarbital took effect. After the execution, The Nahville Tennessean live streamed a press conference at which the every media witnesses reported Black said, “It's hurting so bad.” They also reported Black showed other signs of discomfort.
If you’ve read my blog and posts, you know I am against the death penalty on principle, as my rhetoric here reflects. That doesn’t mean I side with the perpetrator or convicted inmate. Black’s crime was heinous. But so was Tennessee’s ignoring the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.
