I had been planning on writing on something else soon. Perhaps I still will. But I was grabbed by the story out of TN which has been presumably been widely read over the last few days. You may be familiar with it. I mean, of course, the TN execution of Byron Black and the ironies, contradictions and peculiarities surrounding it. Black was put to death yesterday(Aug 5)by lethal injection., He had committed a horrible crime more than 30 years ago when he killed his ex-girlfriend and her two young daughters, 6 and 9 years old.

Convicted of murder then, his case was put off again and again by a series of circumstances. By the time his execution was at hand he was clearly disabled, confined to a wheelchair(I wonder who helped him out of the wheelchair to his place of execution and how they felt about it) and suffering from heart disease. He had been treated for the latter in the past and had had a device inserted in him which was to serve as both a pacemaker and a defibrillat

It was also clear from the evidence that he was and possibly always had been of limited mental capacity. It appeared that he had never scored higher than 70 on an IQ test and that he was functionally retarded, though that is my term, not an official one.

The ironies abound. It could be argued, with some logic but little mercy, that it was a waste of money to insert such an object in a sick man who was a life prisoner anyway. It could also be argued, just as logically, that this was the only reasonable step to take.

But the biggest irony is that this device, meant to preserve and extend life, might possibly be an issue in carrying out the execution. The device would be doing its job, trying to keep him alive, while the lethal injection was busily going about killing him. The device works by issuing shocks to the system to control the heart and to keep it going. Sometimes it does this when it should not and causes the patient pain.

It was assumed by many that this contradiction could turn the execution into a routine of torture. Black would be in severe pain from the misfiring device trying to save his life, by fighting the lethal injection while it took it. This, of course became an issue for the courts and other parts of the system. A trial judge ruled in July against the execution taking place without the device being removed because of this potential pain. But the TN Supreme Court overruled the lower court and allowed the state to proceed to proceed without deactivating the device which could have been done and does not sound as if it would have been difficult or time consuming

Gov Bill Lee could have stepped in and demanded the device be deactivated. Or he could have commuted the sentence and stopped the whole thing. But he chose not to. The execution took place at or around 10:00 AM Aug 5 and a 10.43 Black was officially pronounced deceased. During the time this happened witnesses reported that he struggled and cried out “It’s hurting so much.” His spiritual advisor(not otherwise identified)said “I’m so sorry.” In addition to the advisor the other six witnesses agreed that Black appeared to be in pain/discomfort during the process.

The whole thing fills s me with disgust and confusion. Why did this drag on for over thirty years? Why was the devise implanted in the first place? Having done so, presumably out of some kind of compassion, why did they refuse to deactivate it to save possible pain? Why did the TN judiciary disagree with each other to such a large extent? Perhaps most of all, why did Gov Lee refuse a simple act by which he could have(but didn’t)demand the defibrillator be disconnected, or even spared Black?

I can only say that I am disgusted and confused by the whole thing. I did a blog sometime ago(Jan 30, 2024)which I urge you to read for further information on my feelings about capital punishment. They are still mainly what they were then with an added degree of questioning and disgust. I understand the pain of the survivors of murder victims who seek justice–but how do we discriminate between justice and pure revenge> And should we? And why is this sort of thing going on in our country but nowhere else in the industrial, advanced part of the world? What is going on here? Are we right and much of the rest of the world wrong? Please think about it. This is a national disgrace. I am at a loss to go further.