James Byrd, Jr.
John William King
updated mugshot
Last mugshot before execution
Summary of Offense:
King and two co-defendants, Lawrence Russell Brewer and Shawn Allen Berry, were convicted of torturing and killing James Byrd, Jr., a 49-year old handicapped black male, in rural Jasper County. The victim was observed in the back of a pickup truck occupied by King and the co-defendants. King and his co-defendants drove to an isolated spot on a logging road where they beat and tormented the victim, then tied him to a logging chain, which was hooked to the pickup truck. King and his co-defendants then dragged the victim to his death, leaving his decapitated and dismembered body to be found the following day by citizens and law enforcement officials. It was argued in court that King and his co-defendants engaged in this criminal act, in part, due to their racially separatist affiliation with the Confederate Knights of America and the Ku Klux Klan. Brewer and one co-defendant were documented members of the Confederate Knights of America and a large number of Ku Klux Klan and other racial separatist organization paraphernalia was discovered in a residence occupied by the three.
King was sentenced to death on February 25, 1999. Berry received a life sentence. Brewer was sentenced to death in September 1999 and executed on September 21, 2011. For more on Brewer, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...awrence+brewer
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