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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Sam Levin

The Tennessee execution that ‘went horribly wrong’: how Byron Black’s killing unfolded

Mugshot of person in prison
Byron Black, in this picture taken in 1997. Photograph: Robert Johnson/The Tennessean/USA Today/Imagn Images

For attorney Kelley Henry, the visible blood was the first indication that the execution of her client was going wrong.

At 10.15am on Tuesday inside the Riverbend maximum security prison in Nashville, the longtime Tennessee death row lawyer watched as staff attempted to place an IV into the right arm of Byron Black. Black was locked on to a gurney with crisscrossing black straps over his chest, stomach and legs, and Henry saw blood ooze from the injection site.

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