Tennessee Supreme Court Reschedules Byron Black Execution Due to COVID-19

The Tennessee Supreme Court has stayed a second execution due to the coronavirus pandemic, rescheduling Byron Black's Oct. 8 execution for April 8, 2021.

Black's attorneys argued in an April motion that the strict guidelines aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 prevented him from completing testing and taking other steps required to make the argument that he is incompetent to be executed. They wrote that he has an IQ of 67, suffers from brain damage and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. 

Black was convicted in Nashville in 1988 for the murders of Angela Clay and her young daughters Latoya and Lakeisha.

Kelley Henry, the Nashville-based Supervisory Assistant Federal Public Defender who represents Black, released the following statement after the court's order on Friday:

The COVID-19 crisis is unlike anything we have ever seen before and the Court is correct to stay the execution of Bryon Black. The stay will help protect guards, witnesses, attorneys representing the prisoners, attorneys for the State, and everyone else involved in these cases. The Court previously granted a stay to Oscar Smith and Texas has placed six executions on hold because of the pandemic. We are grateful that the Court put the public health first.

Mr. Black has brain damage, schizophrenia, and an IQ of 67. In addition to the mental defects that make him incompetent to be executed, he suffers from many medical ailments. He is physically infirm, can barely walk, is in need of two hip replacements, and suffers from congestive heart failure. He gets around the prison by being pushed in an office chair with wheels. Mr. Black’s attorneys are preparing a motion for a competency hearing because the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who, like Mr. Black, has lost his sanity. For the court to evaluate Mr. Black’s competency, it would need to hear from mental health experts who are out of state and can’t travel to Tennessee to examine Mr. Black in the prison at this time. The stay in Mr. Black’s case was absolutely necessary.  

The state Supreme Court

June 4 execution, moving it to Feb. 4, 2021.

Two men are still scheduled to be executed this year: Harold Nichols on Aug. 4 and Pervis Payne on Dec. 3.