Attorneys for John Balentine, a Black man sentenced to die, have uncovered powerful evidence of racism at his trial.
and two other white teenagers in Amarillo in 1998, have uncovered powerful, previously unheard evidence of racism at his trial. That trial judge placed a hold on Balentine's execution, but on Wednesday, Feb. 8 – the day he was set to die – theU.S. Supreme CourtCentered around an interracial relationship in deeply conservative Amarillo, Balentine's trial was suffused with racist overtones even before the new evidence was uncovered.
At least four jurors began the sentencing deliberations in favor of life, according to Balentine's appeal. England vehemently opposed the idea:"He was concerned that if others voted for life, Mr. Balentine could get paroled early. If that were to happen, Mr. England believed that he would personally have to hunt Mr. Balentine down and kill him. He would shoot Mr. Balentine if he ever saw him on the street.
Investigators for Balentine have interviewed some of these jurors in the last two years. Several spoke of the trial's atmosphere of racial tension. One remembered being shocked that authorities did not remove Balentine's shackles, as they are required to do:"I watched the sheriffs bring in this Black man covered in chains and shackles. It was a strange sight. It took me a while to piece together that this was who the case was about.
Balentine's attorneys argue that the trial was racist in other ways – for example, prosecutors made certain there were no Black people on the jury.
Shawn Nolan, another of Balentine's attorneys, points to a a pair of 2017 opinions addressing racist trials –– that suggest Balentine's death sentence should be held to be unconstitutional."The court is a bit different today than it was a couple of years ago, but I still think they should be very interested in these kinds of issues," Nolan told us.
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