The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled on July 31 that Byron Black could be executed without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, with the high court noting that requiring that the device be deactivated "amounted to a stay of execution, which is not within the lower court’s power," according to the Associated Press.

Tennessee is scheduled to execute death row inmate Byron Black on Tuesday morning despite concerns his heart implant will shock him repeatedly during the lethal injection. Black, 69, is one of the longest residents on the state's death row.