July 24 (UPI) — Family members, mental health service providers and advocates for people with disabilities Thursday called on Tenn. Gov. Bill Lee to stop the scheduled Aug. 5 execution of Byron Black, a man diagnosed with dementia and brain damage.
Advocates called on Lee to instead commute Black’s death sentence to life in prison which they say is in accordance with the United States and Tennessee constitutions.
“A man should not be executed because his lawyers were too diligent in bringing his case to the courts expeditiously in 2004 when the Tennessee ID standards were inaccurate,” said Donna Destefano, a 30-year advocate for Tennessee residents with disabilities.
“There is no doubt that Mr. Black meets the medical standard for ID, and that his execution would not only be unconstitutional but inconsistent with our Tennessee values that protect people with intellectual disability.”
Advocates wrote a letter contending that if Black were sentenced today, the death penalty would not be applicable under current law. Medical experts and Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk.
Black was sentenced to death for killing Angela Clay and her 9 and 6 year-old daughters. During the 1989 trial, one of Black’s lawyers argued that his client was “delusional about what was going on,” local media reported.
Ross Alderman, Black’s defense attorney at the time of the trial, had argued that his client was mentally incompetent even prior to the murders, did not understand the implications of witness testimony and asked if it was his time to testify after the jury had already left the courtroom.
The jury sentenced Black to death despite questions about his mental incompetency, but his advocates and a team of attorneys have worked to support Alderman’s initial impressions of Black’s mental capacity.
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