A Tennessee judge ruled on Tuesday that the state can deactivate a death-row inmate's implanted heart-regulating device at a hospital on the morning of his execution, rather than bringing a doctor or technician into the execution chamber.
The ruling comes after Deputy Attorney General Cody Brandon told the judge they could not comply with an earlier order requiring Byron Black's implanted cardioverter-defibrillator to be turned off just prior to the injection of a lethal dose of pentobarbital on Aug. 5. In the Friday order, Davidson County Chancery Court Judge Russell Perkins agreed with Black's attorneys that not deactivating the device could cause Black to suffer needlessly as it continuously shocks him in an attempt to restore his heart’s normal rhythm during the execution.
