Texas executes convicted killer John Balentine

A man sentenced to death for killing three teens more than two decades ago was executed in Texas Wednesday night — and apologized to his victims’ families in his final moments.

John Balentine, 54, was pronounced dead at the state penitentiary in Huntsville at 6:36 p.m., just hours after the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) overruled a district judge’s decision to delay the execution, The Texas Tribune reported. 

“I want to apologize for the wrong I did to y’all. Forgive me, I’m ready,” Balentine said to witnesses, which included seven relatives of the victims.

Balentine was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the Jan. 1998 triple shooting of his former girlfriend’s brother, Edward Mark Caylor, 17, as well as Kai Brooke Geyer, 15, and Steven Watson, 15, at a home in Amarillo, according to The Guardian,

All three victims were white, and Balentine was black. At trial, prosecutors argued that the shooting was spurred by an argument between Balentine and Caylor, who disapproved of his sister’s interracial relationship. 

Although Balentine confessed to the killings, his current lawyers argued for years that his 1999 trial was tainted by racial bias.

In addition to alleging that the jury foreman was an open racist, Balentine’s legal team claimed that the state’s attorneys blocked potential black jurors and that one of Balentine’s trial attorneys, Randall Sherrod, referred to the sentencing as “‘justifiable lynching.’”

“I think he got a fair trial,” Sherrod, who is white, told The Guardian of his former client.

“I think we had a good jury … We tried to help John whatever way we could.”

The outlet also reported that Balentine was one of five Texas death row mates who sued the state to stop using what they claimed are unsafe, expired execution drugs.

A civil court in Austin preliminarily agreed with the inmates’ claims, but Balentine is the third plaintiff in the suit to be executed amid proceedings.

In a final, last-ditch effort, a state district judge recalled Balentine’s execution date and death warrant last week after finding that the inmate’s lawyer had not received sufficient prior notice of the proceedings.

Prosecutors ultimately appealed the decision to the CCA, reinstating the date and warrant Wednesday morning.

After briefly conferring with a spiritual advisor, Balentine gave a brief final statement to the witnesses, which included his family.

“I want to thank y’all. I love y’all for supporting me,” Balentine said.

Balentine is the sixth US death row inmate to be executed in 2023. Just one day before his death, Missouri executed Raheem Taylor, who was convicted of the 2004 murder of his girlfriend and her three children.