Attorneys want to delay Tennessee’s next execution, citing mental competency concerns

Tennessee is scheduled to execute Byron Black in August. His attorneys argue his death should be delayed and his sentence reconsidered, citing his intellectual disability, progressive dementia and brain damage.

Black’s defense attorneys submitted their request to the Tennessee Supreme Court this week. They argue the trial court made a mistake when it declined to consider Black’s mental competency. They say some of the confusion was likely because Black’s competency is erased by his disability and brain injuries — instead of the more common issue of mental health diagnosis. The court said the request was too unique and “outside the scope” of the court’s authority to consider, the filing reads.

Attorneys want the court to hold a hearing on whether incompetency due to “low intellectual functioning” qualifies for the same protections, and they want the state to delay Black’s execution until the court reaches a decision.

In the filing, the lawyers argue that Black wouldn’t be able to grasp why he was being put to death.

“A half dozen experts have diagnosed him with an intellectual disability,” the filing reads in part. “At his most recent evaluation, Mr. Black could not accurately make change for a five-dollar bill… Since his incarceration on death row, Mr. Black has developed dementia, which further impedes his daily functioning.”

They note that physicals have shown his brain is atrophying and losing mass.

Black was convicted of killing his girlfriend and her three daughters. The incident took place in 1989.

Black’s mental competency was considered to some extent in 2022. The year before, the Tennessee General Assembly re-wrote laws about mental competency in executions. Under the new law, both defense attorneys and prosecutors argued that Black should be taken off death row, according to The Tennessean.

However, the judge on Black’s case refused to reduce his sentence.

Black is one of four men scheduled to be executed this year under Tennessee’s newest lethal injection protocol. The first was Oscar Franklin Smith, who was put to death last month.