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.

Several Arkansas death row inmates have sued the state to block a new law allowing executions by nitrogen gas, saying the measure gives officials broad authority to decide how they should die.