Editor’s note: This story references a racial slur.
Texas on Wednesday evening executed John Lezell Balentine hours after the state's highest criminal court reinstated the execution, overruling a state district judge who had delayed it last week because his lawyers weren't given enough notice of the execution date.
Lawyers for Balentine, who was convicted of killing three teens in an Amarillo home, had also filed appeals raising questions about juror misconduct and racial prejudice at his trial. The Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed those efforts as well, according to his lawyers, leaving them to pursue to no avail a last-ditch appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court as the execution loomed.
