• Balentine execution date 'recalled' by Potter County District Court

• [@] Balentine execution date 'recalled' by Potter County District Court
  eam claimed that the TDCJ would not conduct his execution in accordance with state law, claiming that officials would use expired Pentobarbital. According to the National Library of Medicine, Pentobarbital is a drug some states use for capital punishment and is commonly used by veterinarians for euthanasia and anesthesia.

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During a hearing hosted in the District Court in Travis County earlier this month, the documents allege that TDCJ planned to use the expired drug in upcoming executions, which could cause “severe harm or unpredictable drug actions.” The motion states that the Travis County District Court allegedly concluded that by using this expired drug, TDCJ was violating the Texas Pharmacy Act, the Texas Controlled Substances Act, the Texas Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and the Texas Penal Code.

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Balentine execution date ‘recalled’ by Potter County District Court

by: David Gay

Posted: Jan 31, 2023 / 05:04 PM CST

Updated: Feb 1, 2023 / 07:15 AM CST

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AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — The execution of 54-year-old John Balentine, originally scheduled for February, has been recalled, according to documents filed Tuesday afternoon in Potter County District Court.

This comes after the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) originally scheduled Balentine’s execution for Feb. 8, according to previous reports by MyHighPlains.com. Balentine was convicted of shooting three teens in Amarillo in January 1998.

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According to the “Order Recalling Execution Date and Warrant of Execution,” Steven Denney, the judge for the 320th District Court in Potter County, said that the warrant of execution, along with the execution date has been recalled because Balentine’s legal team was not properly notified of Balentine’s warrant of execution, along with his execution date, in accordance with the timeline laid out in the Texas Criminal Procedure Code.

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“…This court directs the State to reset the execution date as soon as practical with proper notice to ‘the attorney who represented the condemned person in the most recently concluded state of a state or federal postconviction proceeding…’,” the documents read.

In a motion from Balentine’s legal team, filed in Potter Couty District Court on Jan. 19, the team alleged that the court’s order setting an execution date and its warrant of execution for Balentine violated two specific portions of the Texas Criminal Procedure Code: articles 43.15 and 43.16.

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According to the code, article 43.15 states that when a person is sentenced to death, “the clerk of the court in which the sentence is pronounced shall, not later than the 10th day after the court enters its order setting the date for execution, issue a warrant under the seal of the court for the execution of the sentence of death…” When that warrant is issued, it is required to be sent by the clerk to the attorney who represented the individual, in this case, Balentine, the attorney representing the state along with the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs (OCFW).

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Article 43.16 of the code states that a valid warrant of execution is valid if the sheriff will deliver the warrant to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice “immediately upon the receipt of such warrant.”

“Because the clerk never sent the Warrant to Mr. Balentine’s counsel or OCFW, and because the sheriff did not immediately deliver it to TDCJ and return its receipt to the clerk of this Court,” the motion reads, “the Warrant has no legal significance or effect and cannot lawfully be used to carry out Mr. Balentine’s execution.”