A Tennessee man cried out in pain as he was executed on Tuesday for the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend and her two young daughters.
Byron Black, 69, was killed by lethal injection for the deaths of Angela Clay, 29, and her daughters, Latoya, nine, and Lakeisha, six, despite uncertainty over whether his implanted defibrillator would shock his heart when the chemicals took effect.
He spent the morning participating in a church service inside his cell, and had his final meal at 4.45 am, comprising pizza with mushrooms and sausage, followed by doughnuts and butter pecan ice cream.
As the pentobarbital flowed through his veins on Tuesday morning, he appeared to be in visible distress as he was strapped to a gurney and covered in a sheet with IV lines running to his body at the Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville, according to the Tennessean.
Just two minutes after the curtain to the execution room swung open, Black could be heard sighing heavily and breathing heavily.
He also lifted his head off the gurney multiple times before eventually telling his spiritual advisor: ‘It’s hurting so bad.’
‘I’m so sorry. Just listen to my voice,’ Rev. Monica Coakley responded before singing to comfort him.
Black was then pronounced dead at 10.43, about 10 minutes after the execution started and he talked about being in pain.
Byron Black, 69, was killed by lethal injection for the deaths of Angela Clay, 29, and her daughters, Latoya, nine, and Lakeisha, six
Prosecutors said he killed the victims in a jealous rage after he learned that Clay was considering reconciling with her estranged husband
Black was sentenced to death in 1989 for the shooting deaths of Clay, his girlfriend, and her daughters.
Prosecutors have said he shot them in a jealous rage after he learned that Clay was considering reconciling with her estranged husband, Bennie Clay, whom Black had shot the year before.
He was on work release from a Nashville jail, where he had been serving two years for the shooting, at the time of the murders.
Clay’s sister said Black will now face a higher power.
‘I thank God for making this happen,’ Linette Bell, Angela Clay’s sister, said in a statement read by a victim’s advocate after the execution.
‘His family is now going through the same thing we went through 37 years ago,’ she continued. ‘I can’t say I´m sorry because we never got an apology. He never apologized and he never admitted it.’
But Black’s longtime attorney Kelly Henry claimed the state ‘killed a gentle, kind, fragile, intellectually disabled man in a violation of the laws of our country simply because they could.’
She also argued ‘no one in a position of power, certainly not the courts, was willing to stop them following a back-and-forth in court over whether officials would need to turn off his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD during the proceedings.
Black was sentenced to death in 1989, after his attorneys unsuccessfully argued he had an intellectual disability
Black was on work release at the time of the murders, after being sentenced to two years in a Nashville jail for shooting Clay’s estranged husband, Bennie Clay (pictured)
Henry had argued in court that the defibrillator would likely shock Black repeatedly during the lethal injection process if it were not properly deactivated.
Black’s lawyers also unsuccessfully tried to get a new hearing about an intellectual disability they said Black has exhibited since childhood, with an IQ below 70.
They stipulated in court documents that Black would be deemed ineligible for the death penalty if a new hearing was held, and in 2022, Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk asked a judge to vacate his death sentence.
But the courts ultimately denied the appeal – ruling that the state’s current intellectual disability law does not apply to those who have had their competence adjudicated previously – and Black’s mental capacity was first brought up before his 1989 trial.
Black’s attorneys then appeared to gain a small victory when the Davidson County Chancery Court ruled in favor of Black having his defibrillator disabled before the execution.
Judges ruled that the inmate could be ‘subject to the severe pain and suffering of having his heart repeatedly shocked back into rhythm during his execution,’ NBC News reports.
But Tennessee’s Supreme Court overturned that decision Thursday, saying the other judge lacked authority to order the change.
Still, the state justices left open the possibility that prosecutors and Black’s attorneys work together to figure out a plan to deactivate the ICD.
Black’s attorney Kelly Henry claimed her client was ‘tortured’ as he was executed
Clay’s family said the execution was a long time coming
Yet State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti vowed in a statement last week to move ahead with the execution, as he disputed that he would suffer severe pain.
‘Our office will continue fighting to seek justice for the Clay family and to hold Black accountable for his horrific crimes,’ he said.
Both Gov. Bill Lee and the United States Supreme Court then declined to intervene.
By the time of his death on Tuesday, Black was in a wheelchair, suffering from dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, congestive heart failure and other conditions.
Henry said Black’s defense team will now carefully review autopsy results, EKG data from Black and information from the defibrillator to determine what exactly happened during the execution. The lethal injection protocol is still being challenged in court.
She said she was especially concerned about his head movement and complaints of pain because the massive dose of pentobarbital used to kill inmates is supposed to rapidly leave them unconscious.
‘The fact that he was able to raise his head several times and express pain tells you that the pentobarbital was not acting the way the state’s experts claim it acts,’ Henry said as she argued he was ‘tortured.’
She went on to tell how medical personnel had trouble finding his veins in both arms, leading to a puddle of blood on his right side, and claimed it took 10 minutes for the tubes to be attached, according to the Nashville Banner.
Death row protesters embraced following Black’s death on Tuesday
Henry then held back tears while relaying what she had witnessed during the execution of Black, whom she has represented for 25 years.
The lawyer said those who made the execution possible ‘should feel shame,’ and noted that even though Black did not have any public last words, he asked her to express his gratitude to his family, supporters and even the prison staff who had shown him kindness in his final days.
‘Byron left this world with words of grace, mercy and love,’ Kelly said. ‘I wish I could share these sentiments, I do not.
‘The State of Tennessee heartlessly and intentionally traumatized a second family today. A family that matters. A family that is devastated,’ she continued. ‘May God have mercy on their souls. I know that He has mercy for Byron.’