NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee is set to execute a man Tuesday without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, as uncertainty lingers about whether the device will shock his heart when a lethal drug takes effect.
Gov. Bill Lee declined Monday to grant a reprieve, meaning that Byron Black's execution is all but certain to go forward after a legal battle over whether the state would need to turn off his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD. The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said it’s unaware of any other cases in which an inmate made similar claims to Black's about ICDs or pacemakers. Black's attorneys said they haven't found a comparable case, either.
Lee said the courts have "universally determined that it is lawful to carry out the jury’s sentence of execution given to Mr. Black for the heinous murders of Angela Clay and her daughters Lakeisha, age 6, and Latoya, age 9."
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Black's appeals. The execution would be Tennessee’s second since May, after a pause for five years, first because of COVID-19 and then because of missteps by state corrections officials.
Twenty-seven men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and nine other people are scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025. The number of executions this year exceeds the 25 carried out last year and in 2018. It is the highest total since 2015, when 28 people were put to death.
Black, 69, is in a wheelchair, suffering from dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, congestive heart failure and other conditions, his attorneys have said.
In mid-July, a trial court judge agreed with Black's attorneys that officials must have the instrument deactivated to avert the risk that it could cause unnecessary pain and prolong the execution. But the state Supreme Court intervened July 31 to overturn that decision, saying the other judge lacked the authority to order the change.
The state has disputed that the lethal injection would cause Black's defibrillator to shock him. Even if shocks were triggered, Black wouldn’t feel them, the state said.
Black's attorneys have countered that even if the lethal drug being used, pentobarbital, renders someone unresponsive, they aren't necessarily unaware or unable to feel pain.
Kelley Henry, Black's attorney, said the execution could become a “grotesque spectacle.”
Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya Clay, 9, and Lakeisha Clay, 6. Prosecutors said he was in a jealous rage when he shot the three at their home. At the time, Black was on work-release while serving time for shooting Clay’s estranged husband.
Linette Bell, whose sister and two nieces were killed, recently told WKRN-TV: “He didn’t have mercy on them, so why should we have mercy on him?”
An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator is a small, battery-powered electronic device that is surgically implanted in the chest, typically near the left collarbone. It serves as a pacemaker and an emergency defibrillator. Black's attorneys say the only way to be sure it's off is for a doctor to place a programming device over the implant site, sending it a deactivation command, with no surgery required.
The legal case also spurred a reminder that most medical professionals consider participation in executions a violation of health care ethics.
While the judge's order to deactivate the device was in place, state officials said Nashville General Hospital practitioners would do the procedure the day before at the hospital, but wouldn't travel to the prison on execution day as the court required. The judge offered some leeway, allowing the procedure at the hospital on the morning of the execution.
But Nashville General then released a statement saying the state's contractor didn't reach out to proper hospital leadership and that there had been no agreement to do the work.
In recent years, Black's legal team has unsuccessfully tried get a new hearing over whether he is intellectually disabled and ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
His attorneys have said that if they had delayed a prior attempt to seek his intellectual disability claim, he would have been spared under a 2021 state law.
Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk contended in 2022 that Black is intellectually disabled and deserves a hearing under that 2021 law, but the judge denied it. That is because the 2021 law denies a hearing to inmates who have already filed a similar request and a court has ruled on it “on the merits."
In Funk's attempt, he focused on input from an expert for the state in 2004 who determined back then that Black didn’t meet the criteria for what was then called "mental retardation.” But she concluded that Black met the new law’s criteria for a diagnosis of intellectual disability.
Black also sought a determination by the courts that he is incompetent to be executed.
FILE - This undated booking photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Corrections shows Byron Black. (Tennessee Department of Corrections via AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street closed at another record following a surprisingly strong report on economic growth over the summer. The S&P 500 rose 0.5% Tuesday, beating the all-time high it reached earlier this month. More gains for big tech stocks drove the index higher, even as most stocks in the index fell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.6%. Novo Nordisk jumped after U.S. regulators approved a pill version of the blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy, the first daily oral medication to treat obesity. Treasury yields rose in the bond market.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are edging closer to records Tuesday following updates that showed the economy grew sharply during the third quarter, but inflation remains high and consumers are losing confidence.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and is hovering just above the all-time high it set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 91 points, or 0.2%, as of 3:08 p.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.5%.
A majority of stocks with the S&P 500 were losing ground, but several big technology stocks pushed the market higher. Nvidia rose 2.7% and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, rose 1.4%. They are among several companies with outsized valuations that tend to have more impact on the broader market’s direction.
Novo Nordisk jumped 6.7% after U.S. regulators approved a pill version of the blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy, the first daily oral medication to treat obesity.
Wall Street is getting the latest economic updates during an otherwise quiet holiday-shortened week. Markets in the U.S. will close early Wednesday for Christmas Eve and remain closed for Christmas on Thursday.
The U.S. economy grew at a 4.3% annual rate during the third quarter. That builds on 3.8% growth during the second quarter and marks a sharp turnaround from the first quarter, when the U.S. economy shrank for the first time in three years.
The latest report also showed that stubborn inflation continues to hover over the economy. The Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge — called the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE — climbed to a 2.8% annual pace last quarter, up from 2.1% in the second quarter.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.17% from 4.15% just before the report on gross domestic product for the third quarter was released. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed actions, rose to 3.53% from 3.49% just prior to the report’s release.
The Fed has been taking a more cautious policy approach amid mixed signals from the economy. Economic growth has been occurring at the same time that inflation remains stubbornly above the central bank's 2% target. The job market is also slowing, adding another layer of concern to whether the central bank should continue cutting interest rates.
On Wednesday, the Labor Department will release its weekly data on applications for jobless benefits, which stands as a proxy for U.S. layoffs.
“The Fed has been balancing off inflation risks versus weakening labor markets and today’s report further complicates their dilemma,” wrote Dominic Pappalardo, chief multi-asset strategist at Morningstar Wealth, in a note to investors.
The Fed has cut interest rates three times in 2025 and the central bank's rate-setting committee is divided about additional rate cuts in 2026. The committee members, at their last meeting, projected a wide range of possibilities from holding rates steady to two or more reductions.
Wall Street expects the Fed to hold rates steady at its upcoming meeting in January.
Consumer spending and confidence has been shaky amid worries about high prices, especially with a wide-ranging U.S. trade war that could drive prices for many goods even higher.
The latest update from business group The Conference Board showed that consumer confidence fell in December to its lowest level since tariffs were rolled out in April. Meanwhile, retail sales have been weakening, with consumers growing more cautious.
Consumers have become more targeted in their buying during the holiday shopping season, according to Visa's Consulting and Analytics division. From Nov. 1 through Sunday, cash and credit card sales rose 4.2%, which is less than the 4.8% increase during the same period a year ago.
Markets were mixed in Asia and Europe.
The price of gold continued rising. It rose 0.8% to $4,505.70 per ounce Tuesday and is up about 70% for the year.
Oil prices were relatively stable after jumping a day prior. U.S. benchmark crude rose 0.6% to $58.38 per barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.5% to $62.38 a barrel.
Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
Anthony Matesic works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Trader Jonathan Mueller works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader William Lawrence works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Walmart is displayed on the facade of the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A dealer works near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing the market indexes of Shanghai, Tokyo and New York Dow at a securities firm Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A dealer watches computer monitors at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
