After a Texas court reinstated his execution Wednesday, John Lezell Balentine took his final appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that his death sentence should be reassessed in light of new evidence of juror misconduct and racial bias. The justices declined to block the execution in a brief, unsigned order with no recorded dissents.
Texas executed Balentine by lethal injection on Wednesday evening.
The court’s order denying Balentine’s appeal was the second time in two days that the court green-lighted an execution without comment.
Balentine, a Black man, was sentenced to death in 1999 for shooting and killing three white teenagers in Amarillo, Texas.
