A murderer who killed three teen boys in their sleep said 'sorry' to their mothers in his last words before he was executed.
John Balentine, 54, died after being given a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas on Thursday.
He had been convicted of the January 1998 shooting deaths of Edward Mark Caylor, 17, Kai Brooke Geyer, 15, and Steven Watson, 15, at a home in the city of Amarillo.
Prosecutors said he had shot them while they were sleeping.
Balentine's execution went ahead early on Thursday despite initial doubts after a judge moved to withdraw the execution date and warrant last week.
Following a brief prayer from a spiritual adviser who held his left foot with his right hand, Balentine gave a short final statement thanking friends for supporting him, saying: "I want to thank y’all. I love y’all for supporting me."
He is then reported to have turned towards a window where mothers of each of the three victims were sitting, before saying: “I want to apologise for the wrong I did.
"I hope you can find in your heart to forgive me."
A powerful sedative pentobarbital was then injected into his arms, causing him to snore several times. He was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m., 15 minutes after the injection was administered.
The victims' witnesses were then seen exchanging high-fives before leaving the death chamber.
His death sentence had proved controversial following accusations of racism during the trial process.
Caylor's sister, who was among the witnesses watching is execution, was Balentine's former girlfriend, and prosecutors said the shootings stemmed from a feud between Caylor and Balentine.
Ballentine, however, argued that Caylor and others had threatened his life over his interracial relationship, as he is black.
Attorneys had later alleged the jury foreman in his case, Dory England, held racist views and used racial slurs during his life and bullied other jurors who had wanted to sentence Balentine to a life sentence into changing their minds.
They also claimed that prosecutors used their power to remove all potential Black jurors from being part of the jury.
"Without a thorough judicial consideration of Mr. Balentine’s claims, we can have no confidence that the death verdict isn’t tainted by racial bias," Nolan said.
