A Tennessee hospital says it never agreed to a request by state officials who face a court order to turn off a death row inmate's heart-regulating implant before his execution next week.
After a Nashville judge ordered the deactivation of Byron Black's device, a Tennessee Department of Correction official said in a court declaration that Nashville General Hospital told her they could disable it the day before his Aug. 5 execution at 10 a.m., but wouldn't come to the prison on execution day, as the judge had ordered. The judge ultimately allowed some leniency, saying Black could be moved to the hospital the morning of the execution.
