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The chilling final words of a death row inmate have been revealed after he died in agony during his execution.
Byron Black, a 69-year-old death row inmate in Tennessee, was executed on Tuesday morning despite concerns that his implanted defibrillator could cause him unnecessary pain during the procedure.
His death marks the second execution in the state this year and the 28th nationwide, making it the highest annual count in the U.S. since 2015, the Death Penalty Information Center details.
Black was pronounced dead at 10:43AM following a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
The convicted murderer had been sentenced to death for the 1988 killings of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, 29, and her daughters Latoya, nine, and Lakeisha, six, per Sky News.
As the chemicals began to take effect, Black was heard moaning in discomfort: “Oh, it’s hurting so bad,” he said, his hands and chest restrained on the gurney.
His spiritual advisor, present at his side, sang and prayed during the process, attempting to comfort him with the words: “I’m so sorry. Just listen to my voice,” according to BBC News.
The execution was preceded by a court battle over whether Black’s implanted cardioverter-defibrillator (a device used to detect and correct irregular heart rhythms) should be deactivated to avoid shocks during the injection.
A trial judge had previously ordered that the device be turned off, citing concerns it could cause Black pain or delay the procedure. Black’s attorney, Kelley Henry, argued that the device could easily have been disabled using a handheld machine.
However, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the order last week, ruling the lower court lacked jurisdiction to make such a mandate. Governor Bill Lee also declined to grant clemency or intervene.
Henry strongly condemned the state’s actions, stating her client was wheelchair-bound and suffered from multiple health conditions, including dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, and congestive heart failure. She also reiterated her argument that Black was intellectually disabled, making his execution unconstitutional under federal law.
“The fact that he was able to raise his head several times and express pain tells you that the pentobarbital was not acting the way the state’s experts claimed it would,” Henry said. An autopsy will review the performance of the defibrillator during the execution.
“Today, the state of Tennessee killed a gentle, kind, fragile, intellectually disabled man simply because they could,” she added.
Prosecutors said Black killed Clay and her daughters in a jealous rage, committing the murders while on work-release from prison for previously shooting Clay’s estranged husband, The New York Post reported.
Following the execution, a statement from Clay’s sister, Linette Bell, was read publicly: “His family is now going through the same thing we went through 37 years ago. I can’t say I’m sorry because we never got an apology.”
Black’s execution ends Tennessee’s five-year pause on capital punishment and reignites ongoing debates over the ethics and methods of execution, particularly in cases involving serious illness or disability.