Tennessee is set to execute an inmate Tuesday without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, as uncertainty lingers about whether the device will shock his heart when a lethal drug takes effect.
Barring a late reprieve requested from the governor or the courts, Byron Black's execution will go forward after a legal back-and-forth over whether the state would need to turn off his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD. The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said it’s unaware of any other cases in which an inmate was making similar claims to Black about ICDs or pacemakers.
