Tennessee Department of Correction

Tennessee’s highest court says the state can execute Byron Black without deprogramming a heart implant. It’s a tension that has intensified because of ethical codes in medicine. Black's execution is scheduled for Tuesday.

The story of a Tennessee death row inmate’s heart implant, and attempts to get it disabled before his execution, has gotten even more complicated.

The Tennessee Department of Correction is scheduled to execute Byron Black on Aug. 5, but court challenges regarding the case are still playing out.

A Tennessee judge has ordered the state to disable a death row inmate's heart implant before he undergoes a lethal injection. Byron Black is scheduled to be executed in early August.

Tennessee will execute Oscar Franklin Smith this week, while a lawsuit challenging the state’s new lethal injection protocol makes its way through the court system.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee prison officials say they won't publicly release the the state's latest manual for executing death row inmates. In an email Monday, Tennessee correction official Kayla Hackney denied a public records request from The Associated Press. She cited a state law protecting the identities of the executioner and other people involved. However, the law says confidential information should be redacted, and the fact that a record contains confidential information is not a reason to deny access to it.

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada told the state legislature this week that his department had made progress or completed most of the action steps assigned to them by the statehouse last year. But when attention turned to the department’s relationship with private prison operator CoreCivic, the hearing got heated.

Thousands of Tennessee prisoners are now going to be eligible to get the coronavirus vaccine.The announcement comes days after an Associated Press…

The head of Tennessee’s prison system says the number of unfilled correctional officer positions has reached an “all-time high.”Many facilities were…