NASVIL, Ten.  (AP) – A judge on Tuesday rejected a motion to declare Tennessee a death row inmate mentally disabled, a move that would ban his impending execution.
Senior Judge Walter Kurtz wrote that the federal courts had previously found that Byron Black was not mentally disabled and therefore was not fit to reconsider the decision.  The 45-page decision comes despite an agreement between the Nashville prosecutor and Black’s lawyers that he is mentally disabled and should not be killed.
Black is scheduled to be executed on August 18 for his convictions for the April 1988 murders of his girlfriend and her two young daughters.
Black’s lawyers argued that the 65-year-old should be spared under a 2021 law that retroactively banned Tennessee from being executed for people with intellectual disabilities, noting that there is a different standard in place now than in 2004 – when the court found that Black no longer meets the outdated definition of “mental retardation.”  Previously, Tennessee did not have a mechanism for an inmate to reopen a case to file a mental disability claim.
However, Kurtz concluded that the new state law did not apply to death row inmates who had previously been sentenced by a previous court.
“This Court is unable to see how the decision of the federal courts on the petitioner’s mental disability claim can be regarded as anything other than a decision on the substance in accordance with the legal and medical principles incorporated in its most recent version (law). of Tennessee) “.  wrote Kurtz.  “In view of the above, the Court finds that Mr Black had a full and fair pre-trial hearing on the substance of his allegation of intellectual disability.”
Black was sentenced by a Nashville court to death for his girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakesa, 6.  Prosecutors said he was in a fit of jealousy when he shot the three at their home.  Black was in custody at the time and was spending time shooting and injuring Clay’s estranged husband.
Earlier this month, Prosecutor Glenn Funk – Nashville’s attorney general – announced that he had agreed with Black’s legal team that the detainee was mentally disabled and should instead be sentenced to life in prison.
Funk pointed to a new conclusion that changed from psychologist Susan Redmond Wat, who was one of the state experts in the 2004 determination, but has since said that Black meets the criteria for the new law on diagnosing mental disability.  Another expert also made the decision.
“Today’s order says that although the law has changed, the court doors are closed to Byron Black,” said Kelley Henry, Black’s lawyer.  “We will appeal to this decision, which, in our view, misinterprets Tennessee and federal law.”
Tennessee has scheduled five executions for 2022, including Black’s.  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state has not killed any detainees since February 2020, when Nicholas Sutton died in an electric chair.  Black’s execution was scheduled for October 2020, but due to the pandemic it was rescheduled twice.