Judge dismisses death row inmate’s bid to be declared intellectually disabled

Nashville’s district attorney agrees with man’s legal team that client is intellectually disabled

A judge in Tennessee has dismissed a motion from a death row inmate who hoped to be spared an execution by being designated intellectually disabled.

The Associated Press reports that Senior Judge Walter Kurtz confirmed Byron Black, 65, had been ruled not intellectually disabled by federal courts, and was thus ineligible to have the decision reconsidered.

The decision was made despite both Black's lawyers and the Nashvilledistrict attorney that the man is intellectually disabled and should be spared the death sentence.

Black is scheduled to be executed on 18 August for murdering his girlfriend and her two young daughters in 1988. He was convicted by a court in Nashville of murdering his girlfriend, Angela Clay, 29, and her daughters Latoya, 9, and Lakesha, 6.

Prosecutors claimed he flew into a jealous rage and shot the three at their home. At the time of the murders, Black was on work release for shooting and wounding Ms Clay's estranged husband.

His attorneys are arguing that a 2021 law that prohibits Tennessee from executing intellectually disabled people retroactive. They argued that while Black had previously been found not intellectually disabled, it was under an outdated standard from 2004, which was based on the definition "mental retardation."

Mr Kurtz ultimately rejected that argument, deciding that death row inmates who were previously ruled not intellectually disabled, regardless of the timeframe, are not eligible for a review.

"This Court fails to see how the federal courts' resolution of petitioner's intellectual disability claim can be seen as anything other than an adjudication on the merits under the legal and medical principles which are embodied in the most recent version of (Tennessee law)," Mr Kurtz wrote.

"Given the above, the Court finds that Mr Black had a full and fair previous adjudication on the merits of his intellectual disability claim."

District Attorney Glenn Funk, Nashville's lead prosecutor, said earlier this month that he agreed with Black's defence team that he was intellectually disabled and should be sentenced to life in prison.

Mr Funk referenced a recently changed conclusion by Susan Redmond Vaught, a psychologist, who was one of the state's experts in Black's 2004 ruling. She now believes Black meets all of the new law's criteria for being intellectually disabled.

"Today's order says that even though the law has changed, the courthouse doors are closed to Byron Black," said Kelley Henry, Black's attorney. "We will appeal this decision which, in our view, misinterprets Tennessee and federal law."