Texas executes man convicted in murder of James Byrd Jr., the 1998 case that prompted a national discussion about hate-crime laws

Convicted killer John William King, center, is escorted from the Jasper County Courthouse after being found guilty of capital murder in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in 1999. King is scheduled to be executed Wednesday evening.

Twenty-one years ago, in the East Texas town of Jasper, 49-year-old James Byrd Jr. was walking home late on a Saturday night when 3 white men in a pick-up truck pulled up beside him. The African-American man was well-known and well-liked in the town of Jasper. And when the driver, Shawn Berry, offered to give Byrd a ride, Byrd hopped right in — after all he’d known the driver most of his life.

What happened next shocked the conscious of the town, the nation and the entire world.

Death has begotten death and Wednesday evening, John William King, will be executed at the Huntsville Prison in Huntsville, Texas, for his role in the gruesome and racist murder of James Byrd Jr. in the summer of 1998.

A stint in prison, and a murder

Although John “Bill” King had grown up in a loving home in Jasper, his friends, family and clergy say he was changed by a stint in the George Beto Unit, a maximum security prison, where he’d been sent for stealing. There he met and befriended Lawrence Russell Brewer, a known white supremacist.

Once released, King and Brewer returned to King’s hometown as hardened, racist criminals on the prowl for black blood. Amiable and disabled, James Byrd Jr. just happened to be walking home to his apartment that early Sunday morning on June 7, 1998. King’s friend, Shawn Berry, was ferrying King and Brewer around in his truck and partying with them when they spotted Byrd. They pulled up next to Byrd and offered to give him a ride. Byrd knew the driver, Berry, well enough to accept the offer. It was a fatal mistake.

Instead of taking him home they took him to a small clearing out in the woods. After offering him a drink, Brewer and King set upon Byrd, beating him, taunting him, urinating on him. They used a baseball bat. Finally they chained him by the ankles to the back of the truck. King got in the driver’s seat and they began to drag Byrd down a deserted rural road. After 3 miles they stopped, picked up the pieces of what was left of Bryd’s body and dumped them in front of a nearby African-American church to be found later that Sunday morning.

James Byrd Sr. and his granddaughter Renee Mullins, right, react to the sentencing of John William King to death in Jasper, Texas. King was convicted for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in the summer of 1998.

Jasper, with a population of around 8,000, is almost equally divided between black and white residents and is religiously devout. The news of Byrd’s death rippled through the black community, with many finding out after Sunday services. The shock and horror rippled outward from those Baptist churches across the nation. Eventually the murder was international news.

Shawn Berry, the driver of the vehicle, was sentenced to life in prison. Lawrence Brewer was given the death penalty and was executed at Huntsville Prison on September 21, 2011.

A section of Huff Creek Road in Jasper, Texas, where James Byrd Jr., who was black, was dragged to death. John William King, the convicted ringleader of Byrd’s death, is set to be executed on Wednesday, April. 24, 2019.

Lasting repercussions

In 2001, then Gov. Rick Perry signed into law the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act in Texas. George Bush as governor had originally opposed the bill and declined to attend Byrd’s funeral, citing a previous commitment. But after Bush was elected President in 2000, Perry stepped in to finish Bush’s term and signed the hate crime legislation into Texas law. And then in 2009, President Barack Obama signed into federal law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, connecting Byrd and Shepard who was also tortured and murdered in Wyoming a few months after Byrd.

Byrd’s only son Ross has been active in opposing the death penalty for his father’s murders, citing his Christian faith.

As they did at Russell Brewer’s execution 8 years ago, James Byrd Jr.’s sisters say they will witness the John William King’s execution this evening.