Tennessee
Death row inmate makes last-ditch effort to prevent August 5 execution
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Attorneys for a Tennessee death row inmate have launched a last-ditch effort to prevent his Aug. 5 execution.
In Nashville’s Chancery Court, they are asking a judge to require the Tennessee Department of Correction to deactivate an implanted defibrillation device similar to a pacemaker in the moments before Byron Black’s execution. If the judge rules in their favor, such an order could potentially delay the execution until the state finds someone willing to do the deactivation.
Meanwhile, at the state Supreme Court level, they want judges to order a lower court to consider their claim that Black is incompetent to be executed. The attorneys also have filed a general challenge to the state’s new execution protocol, but with a trial scheduled for 2026, any ruling there will come too late for Black.
Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakeisha, 6. Prosecutors said Black was in a jealous rage when he shot the three at their home. At the time, Black was on work-release while serving time for shooting and wounding Clay’s estranged husband.
Black has already seen three execution dates come and go, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and a pause on all executions from Gov. Bill Lee after the Department of Correction was found to not be testing the execution drugs for potency and purity as required.
Black’s attorneys have previously tried and failed to show that he should not be executed because he is intellectually disabled, and that would violate the state’s Constitution.
In a new twist on the same theme, his attorneys now argue that the court should consider Black’s competence to be executed under older English common law standards. The state counters that Black does not meet the criteria for incompetency because he understands his conviction, his pending execution, and the relation between the two.
Separately, Black’s attorneys are asking a different court to rule that his implanted cardioverter-defibrillator must be deactivated just before the execution. They suggest that otherwise the device will continually try to restart his heart, prolonging the execution and causing Black to suffer unnecessarily.
Because most medical professionals are unwilling to participate in executions — considering it a violation of medical ethics — it could potentially be time consuming and difficult to find someone willing to deactivate the device in order to kill Black more easily. A hearing on the motion is set for July 14.
Oklahoma
Doctor accused of killing young daughter and faking
a drowning at rental home
An Oklahoma medical doctor is accused of traveling to South Florida and staging the death of her 4-year-old daughter to make it appear the child drowned in the swimming pool at their rented vacation home in the middle of the night, detectives say.
Dr. Neha Gupta, a 36-year-old pediatrician, was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail in Oklahoma City on Tuesday. She is accused of first-degree murder in Miami-Dade County, an arrest warrant states.
Gupta “attempted to conceal the killing of the deceased victim by staging an accidental drowning within the swimming pool of a rental property,” a Miami-Dade sheriff’s homicide detective wrote in an affidavit obtained by The Associated Press.
In addition to facing the murder charge in Florida, she is accused of fleeing to the Oklahoma City area where she lives to avoid prosecution in Florida, according to jail records. Gupta is jailed without bond, and Florida authorities are seeking her return to Miami to face the murder charge.
The records do not list an attorney for Gupta who could be reached for comment on her behalf.
Gupta told investigators that she was sleeping with her daughter Aria at the Airbnb rental home in El Portal, north of Miami, when she heard a noise around 3:20 a.m. on June 27.
She noticed a sliding-glass door in the bedroom that led to the outdoor patio was open. She then found Aria under water and unresponsive in the deep end of the pool, the affidavit states.
Gupta said she tried to save the girl, but told the detective that she doesn’t know how to swim and was unable to get Aria out of the water.
Police and firefighters arrived and performed CPR on the girl, but Aria was pronounced dead at a hospital before dawn.
A doctor who performed an autopsy at the medical examiner’s office did not find water in the child’s lungs or stomach, and that “based on these findings she was able to rule out drowning as being the cause of death,” the detective wrote. Dr. Tuyet Tran also advised authorities that she believes the child was dead before being placed in the pool, the detective wrote.
The cause and manner of death are pending, but Tran found injuries such as bruising within the girl’s cheeks. Tran’s preliminary findings are that these injuries “are consistent with asphyxiation by smothering,” the affidavit states.
Police have not revealed any possible motive in the case. The detective noted in the affidavit that Gupta shares custody of the child with her ex-husband, who told detectives that he and his ex-wife are involved in an ongoing custody battle over the girl.
The ex-husband also told detectives that he was unaware that Gupta and the child had traveled to South Florida. Based on surveillance video and Airbnb records, investigators determined that Gupta and her daughter were the sole occupants of the rental unit, the affidavit states.
Gupta practiced medicine at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, part of the University of Oklahoma’s health system, according to records from the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision. The university’s faculty directory showed that she has also been an assistant professor at the university’s health sciences center.
The University of Oklahoma and its health system released a statement this week saying that Gupta has been “suspended from patient care, given notice of termination, and was no longer seeing patients at the health system as of May 30, 2025.”
Gupta has also been given a “notice of termination” by the university, the statement said.
Death row inmate makes last-ditch effort to prevent August 5 execution
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Attorneys for a Tennessee death row inmate have launched a last-ditch effort to prevent his Aug. 5 execution.
In Nashville’s Chancery Court, they are asking a judge to require the Tennessee Department of Correction to deactivate an implanted defibrillation device similar to a pacemaker in the moments before Byron Black’s execution. If the judge rules in their favor, such an order could potentially delay the execution until the state finds someone willing to do the deactivation.
Meanwhile, at the state Supreme Court level, they want judges to order a lower court to consider their claim that Black is incompetent to be executed. The attorneys also have filed a general challenge to the state’s new execution protocol, but with a trial scheduled for 2026, any ruling there will come too late for Black.
Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakeisha, 6. Prosecutors said Black was in a jealous rage when he shot the three at their home. At the time, Black was on work-release while serving time for shooting and wounding Clay’s estranged husband.
Black has already seen three execution dates come and go, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and a pause on all executions from Gov. Bill Lee after the Department of Correction was found to not be testing the execution drugs for potency and purity as required.
Black’s attorneys have previously tried and failed to show that he should not be executed because he is intellectually disabled, and that would violate the state’s Constitution.
In a new twist on the same theme, his attorneys now argue that the court should consider Black’s competence to be executed under older English common law standards. The state counters that Black does not meet the criteria for incompetency because he understands his conviction, his pending execution, and the relation between the two.
Separately, Black’s attorneys are asking a different court to rule that his implanted cardioverter-defibrillator must be deactivated just before the execution. They suggest that otherwise the device will continually try to restart his heart, prolonging the execution and causing Black to suffer unnecessarily.
Because most medical professionals are unwilling to participate in executions — considering it a violation of medical ethics — it could potentially be time consuming and difficult to find someone willing to deactivate the device in order to kill Black more easily. A hearing on the motion is set for July 14.
Oklahoma
Doctor accused of killing young daughter and faking
a drowning at rental home
An Oklahoma medical doctor is accused of traveling to South Florida and staging the death of her 4-year-old daughter to make it appear the child drowned in the swimming pool at their rented vacation home in the middle of the night, detectives say.
Dr. Neha Gupta, a 36-year-old pediatrician, was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail in Oklahoma City on Tuesday. She is accused of first-degree murder in Miami-Dade County, an arrest warrant states.
Gupta “attempted to conceal the killing of the deceased victim by staging an accidental drowning within the swimming pool of a rental property,” a Miami-Dade sheriff’s homicide detective wrote in an affidavit obtained by The Associated Press.
In addition to facing the murder charge in Florida, she is accused of fleeing to the Oklahoma City area where she lives to avoid prosecution in Florida, according to jail records. Gupta is jailed without bond, and Florida authorities are seeking her return to Miami to face the murder charge.
The records do not list an attorney for Gupta who could be reached for comment on her behalf.
Gupta told investigators that she was sleeping with her daughter Aria at the Airbnb rental home in El Portal, north of Miami, when she heard a noise around 3:20 a.m. on June 27.
She noticed a sliding-glass door in the bedroom that led to the outdoor patio was open. She then found Aria under water and unresponsive in the deep end of the pool, the affidavit states.
Gupta said she tried to save the girl, but told the detective that she doesn’t know how to swim and was unable to get Aria out of the water.
Police and firefighters arrived and performed CPR on the girl, but Aria was pronounced dead at a hospital before dawn.
A doctor who performed an autopsy at the medical examiner’s office did not find water in the child’s lungs or stomach, and that “based on these findings she was able to rule out drowning as being the cause of death,” the detective wrote. Dr. Tuyet Tran also advised authorities that she believes the child was dead before being placed in the pool, the detective wrote.
The cause and manner of death are pending, but Tran found injuries such as bruising within the girl’s cheeks. Tran’s preliminary findings are that these injuries “are consistent with asphyxiation by smothering,” the affidavit states.
Police have not revealed any possible motive in the case. The detective noted in the affidavit that Gupta shares custody of the child with her ex-husband, who told detectives that he and his ex-wife are involved in an ongoing custody battle over the girl.
The ex-husband also told detectives that he was unaware that Gupta and the child had traveled to South Florida. Based on surveillance video and Airbnb records, investigators determined that Gupta and her daughter were the sole occupants of the rental unit, the affidavit states.
Gupta practiced medicine at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, part of the University of Oklahoma’s health system, according to records from the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision. The university’s faculty directory showed that she has also been an assistant professor at the university’s health sciences center.
The University of Oklahoma and its health system released a statement this week saying that Gupta has been “suspended from patient care, given notice of termination, and was no longer seeing patients at the health system as of May 30, 2025.”
Gupta has also been given a “notice of termination” by the university, the statement said.
Colombia
Latin America’s top human rights court says
states have duty to act on climate crisis
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Thursday issued a landmark advisory opinion linking governments’ human rights obligations to their responsibility to address the threat of climate change — a move expected to shape policy and litigation across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The opinion is the first of its kind from the region’s top human rights tribunal and responds to a 2023 request from Colombia and Chile. It says states have a duty under international law to prevent, mitigate and remedy environmental harm that threatens human rights, including through laws, policies and actions aimed at curbing climate change.
The court outlined a series of legal standards, including the recognition of a human right to a healthy climate, the obligation to prevent massive and irreversible environmental harm as well as the duty to protect the rights of current and future generations.
“The Court has declared that we are in a climate emergency that is undermining the human rights of present and future generations and that human rights must be at the center of any effective response,” Nikki Reisch, program director at the Center for International Environmental Law Climate and Energy, told The Associated Press.
The opinion said states have a legal duty not only to avoid environmental harm but also to protect and restore ecosystems, guided by science and Indigenous knowledge.
“This is a historic opinion,” said Reisch. “It’s not just a legal milestone — it’s a blueprint for action. This opinion will guide climate litigation at the local, regional, and national courts,
and provide a foundation for climate policymaking, grounding local legislation and global negotiations in legal obligation, not just in the Americas but around the world.”
Though not binding, the court’s opinions carry legal weight in many member countries of the Organization of American States and often influence domestic legislation, judicial rulings and international advocacy. The court’s findings are expected to bolster climate-related lawsuits and human rights claims in the region, and to influence negotiations ahead of COP30 — the next major United Nations climate summit, set to take place in November in Belem, Brazil.
“States must not only refrain from causing significant environmental damage but have the positive obligation to take measures to guarantee the protection, restoration, and regeneration of ecosystems,” said Court President Judge Nancy Hernández López.
“Causing massive and irreversible environmental harm...alters the conditions for a healthy life on Earth to such an extent that it creates consequences of existential proportions. Therefore, it demands universal and effective legal responses,” López said.
The opinion comes amid growing Indigenous momentum in the region, including a summit in Ecuador’s Amazon last month where hundreds of Indigenous leaders gathered to demand enforcement of court victories recognizing their land and environmental rights.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San Jose, Costa Rica, is the region’s top tribunal for interpreting and enforcing the American Convention on Human Rights. Its rulings, though often challenged by weak enforcement, have played a key role in advancing Indigenous rights and environmental protections across Latin America.
In recent years, the court has condemned governments for allowing mining projects on Indigenous land without proper consultation, and advocates have increasingly turned to it as a forum for climate-related accountability.
The advisory builds on the Court’s 2017 advisory ruling that recognized the right to a healthy environment as a standalone human right, deepening its application in the context of climate breakdown.
