For Immediate Release: July 10, 2025

Contact: Laura.Burstein@squirepb.com

New Filing: Byron Black Asks Governor Lee to Commute Death Sentence to LWOP Based on His Intellectual Disability, Which the State Acknowledged in 2022

Mr. Black Would Be the First Person with Intellectual Disability Executed in Tennessee in the Modern Era Unless Gov. Lee Grants Clemency

(Nashville, TN, July 10, 2025) Today, Tennessee death row prisoner Byron Black asked Governor Bill Lee to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of release to ensure that Tennessee does not violate the Constitution by executing him. Every expert who has examined Mr. Black agrees that he is a person with intellectual disability. Even the State’s key expert agrees. Based on those intellectual disability determinations, in 2022, the Davidson County District Attorney General stipulated that Mr. Black is a person with intellectual disability, but the courts refused to consider the issue based on procedural grounds. Mr. Black’s clemency application, filed today, explains that clemency is the only remedy available to avoid an unconstitutional and immoral execution.

“Clemency exists for situations like this, where the courts are unable or unwilling to prevent a gross injustice,” said Kelley Henry, one of Mr. Black’s attorneys. “There is no doubt that Byron Black is a person with intellectual disability, but the courts keep finding procedural reasons to deny him relief. 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.”

Mr. Black’s clemency application can be accessed here.

“If the execution is allowed to move forward, Byron Black would be the first intellectually disabled person executed by Tennessee in the modern era of the death penalty,” the application explains. (p. 4) “[N]o other Tennessee Governor has faced this scenario before, and no Governor will face it again,” in large part thanks to a 2021 law signed by Governor Lee himself. (p. 4) In fact, Mr. Black is the only person on Tennessee’s death row who has been denied the benefits of that new law, and that is because only he was diligent in pursuing his claim after Atkins.

In 2021, the Tennessee Legislature passed a groundbreaking law to ensure that the state does not execute those with intellectual disability. It provides death row prisoners with access to a hearing under constitutionally adequate standards to determine whether they are intellectually disabled. When Mr. Black sought a hearing under this law, the State of Tennessee, through its authorized representative, stipulated that Mr. Black is, in fact, intellectually disabled. The State’s own expert, who had testified against Mr. Black in 2004, now agreed. (p. 5) But despite these concessions—and the wealth of evidence that generated them—the court refused to hold a hearing on Mr. Black’s intellectual disability claim because he had received a hearing two decades earlier.

In that prior proceeding, the courts denied relief applying now-discredited standards. Now, because Mr. Black was afforded this long-ago hearing, the courts refuse to consider his claim under medically and scientifically valid standards—including the favorable opinion of the State’s own expert—or to give Mr. Black the benefit of a law that was expressly aimed at preventing the execution of people like him who live with an intellectual disability.

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Herrera v. Collins, the application states: “[c]lemency is the fail-safe to prevent a constitutional injustice when the courts are unable, or unwilling, to provide a remedy.” (p. 6) Mr. Black asks Governor Lee “to be the fail-safe” by preventing his unconstitutional execution. (p. 6)

Noting that Mr. Black is frail, elderly, and suffering from severe illness, and has an exemplary disciplinary record, the application stresses that Mr. Black poses no threat to anyone, should Governor Lee allow him to live out his remaining days in prison.

Mr. Black Faces a “Constitutional Catch-22”

Both the United States and Tennessee Constitutions forbid the execution of a person with intellectual disability. When the U.S. Supreme Court made this clear, in the 2002 decision Atkins v. Virginia, it explained that the cognitive and adaptive limitations of those with intellectual disability reduce their moral culpability and render them vulnerable to manipulation and coercion by both criminals and law enforcement.

Mr. Black’s application stresses that Tennessee has been a leader in protecting those with intellectual disability from wrongful execution. The Tennessee Supreme Court has stated unequivocally: “Tennessee has no business executing persons who are intellectually disabled.”

In Mr. Black’s case, however, the courts have refused to prevent that unconstitutional outcome. The petition explains: “Mr. Black finds himself in a constitutional catch-22. He did everything right. And because he did, he stands to be executed because the courts cannot find a home for his claim.” (p. 6)

Byron Black is a Person With Intellectual Disability

Mr. Black’s clemency application details his lifetime of cognitive and adaptive struggles and cites numerous expert evaluations concluding that he meets the criteria for an intellectual disability diagnosis. (pp. 7-14) Intelligence testing throughout his life has placed him in the intellectually disabled range, with his properly scaled results ranging from 52 to 70. His IQ testing shows remarkable stability over time, confirming that he is a person living with intellectual disability. (pp. 7-8)

Mr. Black also has manifested deficits in adaptive functioning throughout his life, as documented through both expert evaluations and the reports of friends, family members, coaches, and others who interacted with him over the years. He was held back and required to repeat second grade. Even in the underperforming schools he attended, he stood out as a particularly slow and challenged learner. In 2020, Mr. Black’s tested math skills placed him in the 2nd percentile, and his reading skills fell in the 4th percentile. In other words, 98% of the population are better at math than Mr. Black is, and 96% of the population are better at reading. (pp. 9-10)

As a child, Mr. Black struggled to understand how to play simple games. This is consistent with testing showing that he has “severe impairment in applying reasoning and decision-making to real-world situations.” (p. 10) Evaluations over the years also show that Mr. Black struggles with memory, language, and attention. These deficits have only worsened with time and age, particularly since he now suffers from dementia.

Mr. Black’s social deficits are also long-standing and well-documented. He is overly familiar with strangers, smiles inappropriately, and cannot maintain socially appropriate distance when interacting with others. (p. 11) These issues date to his childhood, where his peers recall him failing to understand social cues and having few close friends.

“Mr. Black’s deficits in the practical domain are the most severe,” the application explains. (p. 11) He never lived independently, even after he married and fathered a child. His ex-wife described him as “childish” and said he relied on family members for financial support. He could not perform simple tasks such as caring for his son, cooking, or operating a washing machine. Mr. Black never had a checking account and was unable to manage money. (pp. 11-12)

Mr. Black is a frail, wheelchair-bound man with severe illness and his execution would be a “grotesque spectacle.”

The clemency application also urges Governor Lee to consider Mr. Black’s deteriorated physical and cognitive health as grounds for mercy. He has end-stage kidney disease, congestive heart failure, a broken hip, diabetes, hypertension, and prostate cancer. His heart is so weak that last year, he underwent surgery to implant an automatic defibrillator device. He is scheduled for a second hip replacement and recently underwent surgery to receive a port for dialysis. He requires a wheelchair to move more than a few steps and uses a walker in his cell.

Mr. Black’s implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) also creates a significant risk that his execution will be a prolonged and torturous event. (pp. 14-25) He has sought a preliminary injunction from the Davidson County Chancery Court requiring the Tennessee Department of Corrections to engage a qualified cardiologist to deactivate the device at the moment of his execution, but to date the TDOC refuses to agree to this procedure and the court has not yet ruled.

On Monday, July 14, 2025 at 11 a.m. CT, Chancellor Russell T. Perkins of the Davidson County Chancery Court will hold a hearing on Mr. Black’s motion for a preliminary injunction.

“If Mr. Black is to be executed on August 5, 2025, the extraction team will have to pick Mr. Black up out of his bed to place him on the gurney,” the application explains. (p. 26) “It simply offends all notions of basic human decency to execute a person with this level of helplessness and illness.” (p. 26) Moreover, “[t]he available evidence strongly suggests that Mr. Black would be aware and sensate to pain when his ICD shocks him during his execution.” (p. 20) The ICD is also likely to prolong the execution and make it difficult to determine whether and when Mr. Black has died. (p. 22)

The application urges Governor Lee: “[o]nly you, as the constitutional fail-safe, can prevent this execution by commuting Mr. Black’s sentence to life imprisonment.” (p. 26) At a minimum, “you have the power to grant a reprieve and order TDOC to come up with a plan to address the medical conditions of Mr. Black and others like him so they do not suffer.” (p. 25)

For more information or to speak with an attorney for Byron Black, please contact Laura Burstein at Laura.Burstein@squirepb.com

# # #