HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A man convicted of killing three teenagers as they slept in a Texas Panhandle home more than 25 years ago was executed Wednesday, the sixth inmate on death row in the United States this year and the second in Many days.
John Balentine, 54, whose lawyers argued his trial was tainted by racial bias, received a lethal injection at Huntsville State Penitentiary in Texas in the January 1998 death of Edward Mark Caylor, 17, Kai Brooke Geyer, 15, and Steven. Watson, 15, in a home in Amarillo. Prosecutors said all three were shot once in the head while they slept.
Balentine appeared jovial as witnesses entered the death chamber, asking if someone standing by the gurney could remove the sheet covering the lower two-thirds of her body “and rub my legs.” Then he chuckled.
After a brief prayer from a spiritual counselor who held Balentine’s left leg with his right hand, the prisoner made a brief statement thanking friends for their support. He then turned his head to look out the window at seven relatives of the three murder victims and apologized.
“I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me,” she said.
The mothers of each of the three victims were among the witnesses a few feet from him.
He took two breaths as the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began to flow through those IVs in his arms, snorted twice, yawned, and started snoring loudly again. The snoring – 11 of them – got progressively quieter, then stopped.
At 18:36, 15 minutes after starting the medicine, a doctor pronounced him dead. The victims’ witnesses then agreed before leaving the death chamber. They declined to speak to reporters afterward.
Caylor’s sister, who was among the witnesses who saw him die, was Balentine’s ex-girlfriend, and prosecutors said the shootings stemmed from an argument between Caylor and Balentine. Ballentine, however, claimed that Caylor and others threatened her life because of her interracial relationship. Balentine is black. The three victims were white.
Balentine confessed to the murders. One of his lawyers said Balentine rejected a plea deal that would have sent him to life in prison because the racial threats he received made him fear he would be attacked or killed while he was incarcerated.
The lawyers were pursuing two legal strategies to save their client before he was executed. The first was to argue that his trial and conviction were tainted by racism. But Balentine was also among five Texas inmates who sued to stop the state prison system from using what they claim are expired and dangerous execution drugs. Although an Austin District Court judge granted the early pleas, the state’s two top courts have now allowed the execution of three of the five inmates who took part in the trial. Robert Fratta, 65, was sentenced to death on January 10, and Wesley Ruiz, 43, on February 1.
Prison officials said the state’s supply of execution drugs is secure.
Separately, Balentine’s lawyers argued that the foreman of the jury in his case, Dory England, had racist views and used racial slurs throughout his life and bullied other jurors who wanted to sentence Balentine to prison on life to make him change his mind. Lola Perkins, who had been married to England’s brother, told Balentine’s lawyers that England “was racist against black people because that’s how he was raised.”
England, in a statement before his death in 2021, said he pushed for Balentine’s death sentence because he feared that if the defendant was ever freed, England itself “would have to hunt him down.” However, England also said he threatened to take another juror to court for making biased comments when the person “started talking about this black kid killing these white teenagers.”
Balentine’s lawyers also said prosecutors barred all potential black jurors from serving in the trial, and that Balentine’s trial lawyers characterized the sentencing proceedings in a brief as a “justifiable lynching.”
Randall Sherrod, one of Balentine’s trial attorneys, said Wednesday that he did not recall the memo, but denied that he or the other attorney, James Durham Jr., had any racist attitudes toward Balentine. Durham died in 2006.
“I think he got a fair trial,” Sherrod said of Balentine. “I think we had a good jury. … We tried to help John in any way we could.”
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by Balentine’s lawyers to halt the execution so that his claims of racial bias could be properly reviewed.
A defense request to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to temporarily stay the execution also failed, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a request to stay Ballentine’s execution over allegations that “racism and racial issues permeated” his trial . The appeals court dismissed the stay on procedural grounds without reviewing the merits.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously declined to commute Balentine’s death sentence to a lesser sentence or grant a 30-day reprieve.
“Without a thorough judicial review of Mr. Balentine’s claims, we cannot be certain that the death penalty is not influenced by racial bias,” said Shawn Nolan, one of Balentine’s attorneys.
Potter County District Attorney Randall Sims, whose jurisdiction includes Amarillo, where the murders took place, ordered the execution to go ahead. On Monday, he declined to comment ahead of the execution.
Koda Shadix, the younger brother of Geyer, one of the victims, said in a video posted online last week that he was angry at the efforts to delay justice.
Balentine “has shown no remorse and absolutely does not care what he did. All he cares about is his life,” Shadix said.
Lozano reported from Houston.
Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at https://twitter.com/juanlozano70.
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