Attorney says heart device did not shock Tennessee man in execution who said he was ‘hurting so bad’

Relatives of the victims of convicted murderer Byron Black stay in the area reserved for pro-death penalty advocates outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the execution of Black, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man who said he was “hurting so bad” during his lethal injection this week for the 1980s killings of his girlfriend and her two young daughters was not shocked by his implanted defibrillator, his attorney said Friday.

Kelley Henry, the federal public defender for Byron Black, said her team received an initial evaluation of the data from his implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

The ICD information eliminates one possible cause for Black's comment about pain during his execution Tuesday, and other actions such as when he picked his head up off the gurney and groaned, she said. But many questions remain unanswered, she said.

“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," Henry said in her statement, referencing Tennessee's execution drug, pentobarbital. "Mr. Black suffered.”

Black was executed after a back-and-forth in court over whether officials would need to disable his ICD due to claims it might cause unnecessary, painful shocks to try to fix his heartbeat as the drugs were administered, potentially prolonging the execution.

An autopsy report is expected to be released in eight to 12 weeks, Henry said. She also said their team will be making public records requests to try to piece together what happened. She has said this includes access to Black's electrocardiograph readings from the execution.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said Friday that news of the lack of a defibrillator shock was “just as the state’s medical expert predicted and entirely contrary to the confident predictions of Black’s expert.” Skrmetti cited Black’s numerous failed legal challenges and said, “Byron Black’s execution was entirely legal.”

“Every American has the right to their own opinion about the death penalty, but courts rely on actual facts and actual law, not on theatrics and passion,” Skrmetti said in a statement.

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.

Black died at 10:43 a.m. on Tuesday, prison officials said. It was about 10 minutes after the execution started and Black talked about being in pain.

Ahead of that, when he was asked for any last words, he replied, “No sir.”

Black looked around the room as the execution began, lifting his head off the gurney multiple times, and could be heard sighing and breathing heavily. All seven media witnesses to the execution agreed he appeared to be in discomfort.

“Oh, it’s hurting so bad,” Black said, as he lay with his hands and chest restrained to the gurney, a sheet covering up past his lower half, and an IV line in his right arm visible to media witnesses.

“I’m so sorry. Just listen to my voice,” responded his spiritual adviser in the death chamber.

In mid-July, a trial court judge agreed with Black’s attorneys and ordered officials to have the defibrillator deactivated. But Tennessee’s Supreme Court overturned that decision last Thursday, 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.

Before the execution, the state said in a court filing that a "lethal dose of pentobarbital ensures that Black will not be conscious to experience any pain." The state said unconsciousness occurs within 20 to 30 seconds of administering the drug, followed by respiratory arrest and cardiovascular collapse.

Black, 69, was in a wheelchair, suffering from dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, congestive heart failure and other conditions, his attorneys have said. They said he had an intellectual disability that should have protected him from execution, but was denied a new hearing because he had already been rejected under older standards.

The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center and Black's attorneys said it’s unaware of any other cases with similar claims to Black’s about ICDs or pacemakers. Black’s attorneys said they haven’t found a comparable case, either.

Henry also said officials struggled to insert an IV into his left side, and ultimately did after using some medical device, presumably to find a usable vein, Henry said. They seemed to have no trouble getting an IV into Black’s right side, she said.

That process is not viewed by media witnesses, whose perspective begins when Black is already strapped in and hooked up to IV lines on the gurney.

Jonathan Mattise, The Associated Press