Tennessee continues push for executions, setting 2 more

Tennessee has set two new execution dates, just days after putting to death its seventh inmate in the past year-and-a-half.

On Monday, the Tennessee Supreme Court ordered an Oct. 8 execution date for inmate Byron Black and a Dec. 3 execution date for Pervis Payne. Black was convicted of the 1988 murder of his girlfriend and her two daughters.

Payne was sentenced to death for the 1987 fatal stabbing of a Memphis woman and her daughter.

With two more executions already scheduled in 2020, Tennessee could see an execution rate not matched since 1948. Attorneys for the inmates have argued they are both intellectually disabled and mentally ill.