For the last twenty-three years, John Lezell Balentine has served time on Texas’ execution row. His execution was slated many times but then was later postponed.
We ask for mercy since his death is slated for February 8. We urge everybody to distribute this plea as quickly as possible due to the urgent issue.
In January 1998, he was convicted of murdering Mark Caylor Jr., 17, Kai Geyer, 15, and Steven Brady Watson, all of whom were close relatives or close friends of Misty, his then-girlfriend.
John, who’d been 30 then, acknowledged all three murders as soon after he was detained.
John was raised in a rough and violent familial atmosphere in Arkansas.
He quit his job to become a mechanic. Also, he was typically observed as responsible for robberies and other conduct.
He began often writing to various pen mates once he was put on trial for murder, alone and in his cell.
We wish to unite with John now that his sentence has been delayed until February 8, 2023, by spreading kindness and steadfastly condemning all forms of violence.
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A judge has decided to delay until the following week the implementation of a man discovered guilty of murdering three teenage boys. At the same time, they slept in a home in the Texas Panhandle more than 25 years ago. The murders occurred while the teens were sleeping in the house.
At the state prison in Huntsville, John Balentine, who was 54 years old, was scheduled to be executed by lethal drug injection on February 8.
He was determined responsible for the shooting deaths in January 1998 in Amarillo, Texas, of Steven Watson, 15, Edward Mark Caylor, 17, and Kai Brooke Geyer.
The prosecution claims that Caylor and Balentine disagreed and that Caylor was the brother of Balentine’s ex-girlfriend. Caylor was also the defendant in this case. Balentine was apprehended in Houston approximately six months after the murders took place.
According to the evidence presented at the trial, all three victims were killed by a single gunshot wound to the head while sleeping in a modest house Balentine had occupied.
In 1998, John Balentine was taken into custody for the shooting death
State district judge Steven Denny in Potter County revoked the execution date and warranted for Balentine on Tuesday. Denny did so because the inmate’s lawyers were not sufficiently informed of the date, time, and warrants describing the lethal injection. This notification is required at all times, following the laws of the state.
On Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office requested that Denny reconsider his decision, but he declined their request. The judge ordered the prosecution to swiftly notify Balentine’s attorneys and postpone the execution when he decided to stay the sentence.
His legal representation argues that the jury’s deliberations at Balentine’s trial reportedly suffered from systemic racism and other improper behavior.
In Texas, where there are five people on death row, Balentine is among the detainees who have filed a lawsuit to stop using supposedly unsafe and outmoded execution medicines by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Notwithstanding the preliminary approval of the claims by a civil court judge in Austin, the two highest courts in the state allowed the execution of two prisoners engaged in the issue on January 10 and Wednesday.
Officials from the prison system have responded to the charges made in the lawsuit by claiming that the state’s supply of drugs used for lethal injection is safe.
The state of Texas is scheduled to conduct six more executions by the end of this year, with the next one scheduled to take place on March 7.
