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The Guardian - US

World

Ed Pilkington

‘Can you spell lynching?’: lawyer’s shocking note in Texas execution case

John Balentine Texas Shawn Nolan Nicole Brown Simpson OJ Simpson Amarillo Murder Death Penalty

The execution chamber at the unit in Huntsville, Texas, in this 2000 photo. Balentine’s new legal team are launching a last-ditch attempt to save his life. — The execution chamber at the unit in Huntsville, Texas, in this 2000 photo. John Balentine’s new legal team are launching a last-ditch attempt to save his life. Photograph: Paul Buck/AFP/Getty Images

In April 1999, John Balentine, a Black man on trial for murder in Amarillo, Texas, sat before an all-white jury as they deliberated whether he should live or die.

Should he be given a life sentence, in which case he would probably end his days behind prison bars? Or should they send him to death row to await execution?

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