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Tennessee judge orders turning off of convict’s heart implant at execution
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Tennessee judge orders turning off of convict’s heart implant at execution

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE—Tennessee officials must deactivate a death convict’s implanted heart-regulating device to avert the risk that it might try to shock him in an effort to revive him during his lethal injection, a judge ruled on Friday.

The order by Nashville Chancellor Russell Perkins comes ahead of the Aug. 5 execution of Byron Black. Black’s attorneys have said that the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator could shock him in an attempt to restore his heart’s normal rhythm after the single dose of pentobarbital, with the potential for multiple rounds of shocks and extreme pain and suffering.

Deactivation

The order requires the state to deactivate the device moments before administering the lethal injection, including having medical or certified technical professionals, plus equipment, on hand.

The lower-court judge said the order will not serve to delay the execution.

Black’s attorneys say the only surefire way to shut off the device is for a doctor to place a programming device over the implant site, sending it a deactivation command. It is unclear how quickly the state could find a medical professional willing to do the deactivation. Additionally, the state is almost certain to file a quick appeal.

The implantable cardioverter-defibrillator is a small, battery-powered electronic instrument that is surgically implanted in someone’s chest. Black’s was inserted in May 2024. It serves as a pacemaker and an emergency defibrillator.

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Pentobarbital

At a two-day hearing this week, experts offered clashing testimony on how it would act during the execution and what Black could feel if he is shocked.

Attorneys for the state deemed it highly unlikely that the pentobarbital would trigger the device’s defibrillating function, and if it did, they say he would be unconscious and unaware, and unable to perceive pain.

Black’s attorneys say the state is relying on studies that confuse unawareness with unresponsiveness. The inmate’s team says research shows pentobarbital renders people unresponsive and causes them to experience amnesia after they undergo an operation, but it doesn’t make them unaware or unable to feel pain.

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