The U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 4 declined to stay the execution of a Tennessee inmate whose lawyers argued his pacemaker may cause him pain by shocking him during the execution process.

Byron Lewis Black is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Aug. 5. On the evening of Aug. 4, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, said he would not grant Black a reprieve.

The nation’s highest court rejected without comment several filings seeking to stay Black’s execution. No justices dissented.

The Tennessee Supreme Court previously denied Black’s most recent request for a reprieve on Aug. 1.

Black was convicted in the 1988 murders of his 29-year-old girlfriend, Angela Clay, and her two daughters, Lakeisha, 6, and Latoya, 9. He received consecutive life sentences for killing Angela Clay and Latoya. He received the death penalty for murdering Lakeisha because the jury determined there were aggravating circumstances.

In 2024, the state arranged for Black, who was diagnosed with severe heart failure, “to receive an implanted cardiac device intended to administer painful, but potentially life-saving, shocks in response to ventricular fibrillation,” according to a filing by Black.

Earlier this year, the state issued a new protocol for lethal injections that did not allow for medical accommodations. A state court ruled Black was “entitled to have the device turned off shortly before the execution went forward.” The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the ruling and scheduled his execution for Aug. 5.

The ruling left Black with “no avenue for obtaining … relief before his execution goes forward,” the document said.

He appealed to the state court, arguing the state failed “to address his unique medical needs.”

Unless his pacemaker is deactivated prior to the execution, it will “very likely shock Mr. Black’s heart at least once, and more likely several times, in an effort to restore his normal cardiac rhythm,” the filing said.

Such shocks are “extremely painful” and when they occur Black will probably be aware of them and capable of experiencing the pain they cause.

A state court granted Black’s request for an injunction blocking the state from proceeding without deactivating the device because doing so will not cause the state an “undue administrative or logistical burden,” the document said.

The state appealed, and the Tennessee Supreme Court vacated the lower court order, finding the state had not violated Black’s Eighth Amendment right not to be subjected to cruel or unusual punishment.

Black argued the state acted unreasonably by declining to deal with a technical problem—deactivating the pacemaker—that could “quite literally, be solved with a few clicks on a laptop cursor.”

Black’s filing urged the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution and take up his case.

The state said in an Aug. 3 filing that the U.S. Supreme Court should reject the appeal because Black failed to show his pacemaker presents a risk that he will experience needless suffering.

The Tennessee Supreme Court also agreed with this conclusion, according to the filing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This article by Matthew Vadum appeared Aug. 4, 2025, in The Epoch Times.