John Balentine
Lee Taylor
By Elizabeth Ann Stein
Producer,
Execution Watch
HOUSTON -- Texas is preparing to put to death two men: John Balentine Wednesday and Lee Taylor Thursday. Back-to-back executions are far from rare in the state that has carried out one-third of all U.S. executions since 1976, earning it the nickname of death penalty capital of the Western world.
News coverage and analysis of each execution will be broadcast live on
Execution Watch at 6 p.m. Central Time by Pacifica station KPFT FM 90.1 Houston, and streamed at http://executionwatch.org > "Listen." ... Spread the word.
Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down appeals from both prisoners. Balentine argued his attorneys were ineffective because they failed to give the jury mitigating evidence of his troubled childhood. Taylor claimed his death sentence was improperly obtained because prosecutors told the jury about a murder for which he was convicted when he was a juvenile and ineligible for the death penalty.
Each man will be taken from his cell on death row, handcuffed and chained, then driven from Livingston to the death house in Huntville. The state will execute the men by injecting them with massive doses of drugs normally used to save lives.
Details are below. Spread the word.
John Balentine
TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE:
JOHN BALENTINE, 51, who received news of his latest execution date year and a half after a getting last-minute stay.. A federal appeals court issued the reprieve based on arguments that the jury might not have condemned him for the 1998 triple murder in Amarillo if his trial attorney had presented mitigating evidence about his abusive childhood. The appeals court ruled in November that the evidence could not be considered. More at http://executionwatch.org.
SHOW LINEUP
Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict whose activism has included shepherding several cases to the U.S. Supreme Court., he founded, and hosted for 30 years, the Prison Show on KPFT. His new internet talk show may be heard every weekday on hmsnetradio.org at 2 p.m. CT.
Legal Analyst: JIM SKELTON, a legal educator and retired attorney, he’s a native Texan and iconoclast who has seen capital trials from both the prosecution table and the defense table.
Featured Interview: CLAUDIA WHITMAN, co-author of the Capital Defense Handbook for Defendants and their Families, written with a former death row prisoner now doing life at Angola. She uses the handbook in trainings around the country to empower people who face the death penalty. She is executive director of the National Death Row Assistance Network of CURE and coordinates the GrassRoots Investigation Project of the Quixote Center. Claudia serves on the board for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and for CURE. More on CURE’s Death row Assistance Network is at www.curenational.org, click on “Special Issue Chapters.”
Reporter, Death House, Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC. Founder of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, abolitionmovement.org/
Reporter, Texas Vigil: CRAIG RUTHERFORD, missions chair for St. John's United Methodist Church in Lubbock. He coordinates a vigil during executions.
NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION
Tomorrow, Texas plans to execute LEE TAYLOR. If that happens, Execution Watch will broadcast. Details: executionwatch.org
PRODUCER: Elizabeth Ann Stein, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com.
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Otis Maclay, omaclay @gmail.com.
THEME: By Victoria Panetti, SheMonster International, myspace.com/shemonster.
Lee Taylor
TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE:
LEE TAYLOR, 32, was serving a life term in 1999 for the slaying of a Houston man when he was convicted of murdering a fellow inmate at the Telford state prison in New Boston, about 2-1/2 hours northeast of Dallas. Taylor, who was 16 at the time of the Houston murder, argued that prosecutors improperly used the juvenile conviction - when he was ineligible for the death penalty - as evidence to convince a jury to condemn him for the prison killing. More background at http://executionwatch.org > Backpage on Lee Taylor.
SHOW LINEUP
Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict whose activism has included shepherding several cases to the U.S. Supreme Court., he founded, and hosted for 30 years, the Prison Show on KPFT. His new internet talk show may be heard every weekday on hmsnetradio.org at 2 p.m. CT.
Legal Analyst: JIM SKELTON, a legal educator and retired attorney, he’s a native Texan and iconoclast who has seen capital trials from both the prosecution table and the defense table.
Featured Interview: PATRICIA FOULKROD. An award-winning filmmaker who has taught in juvenile facilities since 1998, she is currently directing a documentary, Unfit, about at-risk kids.
The Huffington Post published a column of hers recently about a bill to abolish juvenile life-without-parole in California. In it, she cites studies showing that teenagers are still maturing and lack critical thinking. Her work-in-progress focuses on several juveniles who have served time, or are serving time, in adult jails and prisons: facebook.com > “Unfit the film.”
Reporter, Death House, Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC. Founder of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, abolitionmovement.org/
Reporter, Texas Vigil: DAVE ATWOOD. Founder and board member, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death penalty; author of memoir, Detour to Death Row. www.tcadp.org.
NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION
On June 21, Texas plans to execute MILTON MATHIS. If that happens, Execution Watch will broadcast. Details: executionwatch.org
PRODUCER: Elizabeth Ann Stein, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com.
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Otis Maclay, omaclay @gmail.com.
THEME: By Victoria Panetti, SheMonster International, myspace.com/shemonster.
In the unlikely event that a stay is announced before the start of
Execution Watch, the show would be shelved and KPFT would broadcast its regularly scheduled programming.
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