Byron Black, 69, was executed Tuesday despite warnings that his defibrillator could cause pain. Witnesses say he cried out, “It’s hurting so bad.”

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.

Byron Black is scheduled to be given a lethal injection after a legal battle about whether a working defibrillator in his chest would cause him pain.