The Tennessee Supreme Court says the state’s prison system can execute Byron Black without deprogramming his heart implant. The court has also left the door open for the state’s Department of Correction to find a doctor willing to do it.

Given the medical profession’s ethical codes on executions, that could be unlikely. It’s a tension that has intensified in the week before Black’s scheduled execution on Aug. 5.

Black is in heart failure, so he has an implant that will shock his heart if his pulse gets too low or his heart goes out of rhythm. That second function, defibrillation, has Black’s attorneys concerned he could be jolted by painful shocks as he dies. In July, they persuaded a Nashville judge, who ordered TDOC to bring in a medical team and high-tech equipment to disable the devi

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