John Balentine Execution (and More on SOTU)

This execution was on hold by a lower court earlier but a divided state appeals court allowed it to move forward. The Supreme Court rejected a final appeal, as usual, without comment. It, as usual, warranted some.

In the court below, Mr. Balentine raised claims that a prospective juror, who later became the jury foreman, hid evidence of his racial bias and lied about his background during jury selection in order to become a member of the jury.

The case -- around twenty-five years ago [again, too long, rising independent constitutional issues though the Supreme Court never accepted that claim; I refer again to Justice Breyer's dissent in Glossip et. al.].  There are no doubts of innocence here.  There is some argument that mitigating evidence was not appropriately introduced and factored in.  

The core claim is that racism, including involving the foreman who played a significant role in the jury choosing death -- corrupted the process.  This was aggravated by the nature of the crime.  John Balentine killed a teen (and two others that seem basically to have been in the wrong place) with a violent streak that was strongly against his interracial relationship with the teen's sister.  John is black.  The sister is white.   

[One article speaks of a "feud" and that at the time of the killings that he was the woman's "former boyfriend."  It says he spoke of "threats" but again doesn't seem like there was a claim it was justifiable.] 

The coverage I see does not seem to suggest John Balentine was at enough risk to his life to excuse the three murders.  But, there seems to be a good case to be made that racism infected the process. His lawyers also argue a pending SCOTUS case is enough like this one to hold things in place until it is decided.  Since the Supreme Court said NOTHING (not just those darn conservatives either), it is hard for me to judge how strong that claim is.

The execution yesterday seems to reasonably be the result of someone cruelly murdering a mother and three children. This one is a bit hazier and is not merely a matter of gratuitous cruelty.  The person was convicted and the murder of three teenagers warrants a long prison sentence. He has been in prison for over twenty years. He can be there longer. 

There is still the concern for possibly outdated execution drugs that might have caused problems in at least one recent execution.  My issue is the racism and due process problems.  

Texas executed him.

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I referenced yesterday that Prof. Kate Shaw [Chris Hayes' wife] wrote an op-ed hoping that President Biden would speak about the courts in his state of the union.  He started with a joke request to the Chief Justice and referenced Roe v. Wade being overruled, but she did not get her wish.  

The SOTU as a whole was very good, even if it was not really a "state of the union" in the sense Art. II quite suggests. It was domestically focused and seemed a lot like a celebratory trot, mixed with perhaps his re-election slogan involving completing the job. He also overall schooled Republicans, who came off badly, especially on Social Security.  

As someone said on Twitter, it was not really politically useful to bring up the courts, especially since the chance of something being done is small. But, it's still troubling on some level, as was his rather limited reference to abortion and trans (the hate of the moment) rights. Gay USA this week overall liked the speech.  

He also should have said more about immigration and the border, which has been a lingering problem for years.  Republicans actually have some incentive to do something about it, maybe even possibly agreeing to a sane policy.  Maybe.  A courts ethics law and maybe more too is possible too. 

And, the House Speaker had to deal with unruly members booing and all, but Republicans had themselves to blame for choosing Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders for the response.  The general response?  Horrible both in content and delivery.  There are better spokespersons, though I guess this troll "anti-woke" sentiment is what they are these days. Failed party.