A judge’s order to take a Tennessee death row inmate to the hospital on the morning of his execution so doctors can deactivate his heart-regulating implant would cause “chaos,” state attorneys said in an appeal.
The argument was one of several in a filing Wednesday that seeks to overturn an order to deactivate Byron Black’s implanted cardioverter-defibrillator, including when and where to do it. Black is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Aug. 5 at 10 a.m.
His attorneys say his heart device would continuously shock him in an attempt to restore his heart’s normal rhythm during the execution, but the state disputes that and argues that even if shocks were triggered, that Black wouldn’t feel them…