Texas Executions Scheduled

Texas is scheduled to carry out back-to-back executions tonight and tomorrow night in Huntsville.  They would be the fifth and sixth executions by the state this year; Texas' 469th and 470th executions since 1983. Texas has the most active execution chamber in the nation, accounting for more than 37% of all the nation's post-Furman
executions.

To date, there have been 20 executions in the nation this year; 1,254 post-Furman executions since 1977. 

"Arkansas man to die in Texas for killing 3 teens," is the AP post by Michael Graczyk, via the Houston Chronicle.  John Balentine is to be executed tonight.

The 42-year-old former auto mechanic and laborer is scheduled for lethal injection Wednesday in the nation's most active death penalty state. His execution is to be followed Thursday by that of Lee Andrew Taylor, a 32-year-old convicted of stabbing another inmate. Balentine would be the fifth prisoner executed in Texas this year.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

According to TDCJ, eight additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2011, including one more this month.  More execution dates are likely to be set in Texas this year.  Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states.