NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Attorneys for Byron Lewis Black, a death row inmate scheduled for execution on October 8, are asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to stay his execution because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The move comes less that two weeks after the same court issued a rare stay of execution for another death row inmate, Oscar Franklin Smith, due to COVID-19. Smith had been scheduled for execution on June 4. The court rescheduled Smith's execution to February of next year.
In the motion filed Wednesday, attorney Kelley Henry makes many of the same arguments regarding Black that she made in convincing the court to postpone Smith's execution, saying that Black's attorney team can't properly prepare for a clemency petition or a competency hearing that's scheduled for August. Black's attorneys argue that Black has brain damage that should exclude him from execution.
Henry also pointed to the presence of COVID-19 inside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, where death row inmates are housed. According to TDOC, one inmate at Riverbend has tested positive. Henry argues that bringing in outside witnesses, as required by law, would put both the prison population and outside population at risk of contracting the virus.
Black was convicted for the 1987 murder of his girlfriend Angela Clay and her two daughters, Latoya and Lakeisha Clay, in Davidson County.
