Advocates and families of people with intellectual disabilities are pleading with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to halt the Aug. 5 execution of an inmate suffering from brain damage, dementia and lifelong cognitive impairment.
While federal legal precedent and state statute prohibit executing anyone in Byron Black’s condition, the Tennessee Supreme Court denied his request for a competency hearing because he had an evidentiary proceeding several years before the law was updated to reflect the latest diagnostic standards.
Zoe Jamail
“Nothing about Mr. Black’s intellectual disability has changed, only the legal understanding of his condition based on sound science. If Mr. Black were on trial today, he would not be eligible for the death penalty,” disability rights advocate Zoë Jamail said during a July 24 press briefing livestreamed from Nashville.
“Based on the medically accurate standards of today, the governor must intervene and commute Mr. Black’s sentence to life to ensure that Tennessee does not execute a man with intellectual disabilities in contravention of the law and values of Tennessee and our common decency.”
Black, 69, was convicted in 1989 on three counts of first-degree murder after fatally shooting his girlfriend and her 9- and 6-year-old daughters a year earlier. He received two life sentences and one death sentence for the killings.
But the inmate unquestionably suffers from profound intellectual disabilities, said Donna DeStefano, a leading advocate and teacher for Tennesseans with disabilities.
Black’s IQ has been measured as low as 50, well below the average, and recent testing has confirmed his severe impairment in applying reasoning and decision-making abilities.
Donna DeStefano
“He has never lived independently, and even after marrying and fathering a child he could not perform simple tasks like cooking or operating a washing machine. Mr. Black is now elderly and has dementia and brain damage, which further limits his cognitive abilities. There is no dispute about Mr. Black’s intellectual disability, and we must make sure Tennessee does not knowingly execute” an inmate in such condition, DeStefano said.
Advocacy groups are not downplaying the suffering experienced by the family and friends of Black’s victims, nor attempting to absolve him of his crime, said Sarah Sampson, executive director of Tennessee Disability Coalition.
“But we are also asking Gov. Lee to reaffirm that Tennessee does not execute citizens with intellectual disabilities.”
The Arc Tennessee, Disabilities Rights Tennessee and the Tennessee Disability Coalition sent Lee a letter July 24 urging the governor to reduce Black’s sentence to life in prison.
The groups also reminded Lee the state General Assembly repeatedly has affirmed its commitment to protect intellectually disabled people from execution. In 2021, legislators voted to place Tennessee law in compliance with the latest diagnostic testing methods.
The letter also cited Atkins v. Virginia, a 2002 ruling that executing prisoners with mental disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Justices reaffirmed and expanded on Atkins in Hall v. Florida(2014) and Moore v. Texas (2019.
“Gov. Lee, we implore you to ensure that Tennessee lives up to its values and to the law by commuting Byron Black’s death sentence to life. Through this executive action, you have the power to uphold the Tennessee and U.S. Constitutions and to reaffirm that Tennessee does not execute those with intellectual disability.”
Black’s legal team has appealed to the governor as well by filing a clemency petition with the governor’s office, according to a report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
“Clemency exists for situations like this, where the courts are unable or willing to prevent a gross injustice,” Death Row defense attorney Kelley Henry said. “Even the attorney general acknowledges that but for Byron’s own diligence in raising his claim decades ago, he would be entitled to a hearing under prevailing medical and legal standards now.”
And if Black is executed, he would be the first person with disabilities put to death by the state in the modern capital punishment era, and also the only Death Row inmate to be denied the consideration required under Tennessee’s 2021 law, the petition explained.