Justice Delayed ... or Justice Denied ?

[Jolie Rouge]

Texas dragging death killer gets death date
Michael Graczyk, Associated Press – Tue May 31, 6:56 pm ET

HOUSTON – One of three men convicted for their involvement in the infamous East Texas dragging death 13 years ago has received an execution date.

A judge in Jasper County signed an order on Tuesday that sets Sept. 21 as the date 44-year-old Lawrence Russell Brewer will be put to death by lethal injection for killing James Byrd. Three white men chained the 49-year-old black man to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him to death on a country road near Jasper.

Brewer was one of the three convicted in the June 1998 case that shocked the nation for its brutality. Partner John William King also was sentenced to death and is awaiting an appeal. A third man, Shawn Berry, received life in prison.


comments

When a brutal crime is crystal clear on who committed the crime, the law should be "an eye for an eye" or they need to be put through the same punishment as they inflicted on the victims. These three criminals need to be tied up behind a truck and dragged to their death.

13 years?? What a pathetic testament to the american justice system

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Convicted in 1998, execution postponed again and again, and now a new date,which will be appealed so he will probably live another 10 years before justice is carried out.

Justice delayed is justice denied these guys need to be put to death in a timely manner and that means within a few years, something like 2 or 3 not 10 to 20.

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13 years! It would be justice if it were possible that the man dragged to his death had been given another 13 years to live, while this scum should have been put to death the day after the conviction. A very good argument for the death penalty. What did this process cost Texas to keep these maggots alive?

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13 years is too long, there's no doubt they did it , put them down , it such have been done a long time ago.

This delay is ridiculous. At least Texas executes it's swine sooner or later.......

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Not quite enough, now is it? They deserve no appeals, they deserve to not be around. People should just realize that the world is sometimes just a better place by ridding ourselves of these @#$%'s who commit these horrible crimes.

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I wonder how James Byrd's appeal for a delayed execution went?

[SLance68]

Unfortunately there are too many ways they can delay a sentencing of this crime. I would be surprised if this is the first time they have signed a death warranty that he would be executed. I cannot remember how many Ted Bundy got before they finally strapped his carcase in the electric chair (which they can't use because it is "too inhumane").

[hblueeyes]

Justice delayed or denied? No. It is our system at work. I would rather wait 13 years for the right person to be put to death than the wrong man at any time. It takes forever, yes that is true. It makes it hard on the families. But it is far better than an innocent man being put to death as there is no recourse to that event. Obvious perpetraitors is not always the case. Hurricane Carter, Rolondo Cruise, are but 2 notorious cases that come to mind. In recent years it seems, in Illinois at least, men were being released regularly because of DNA now proving their innocence.

Me

[Jolie Rouge]

In this case, the SOB not only confessed ... he bragged about it. James Byrd's only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

DNA anaylsis should be REQUIRED as a part of the appeals system... then judgement rendered as it was passed.

There is a guy here who was tried fro muliptle murder counts - walked into his estranged wife'schurch and sho her and all the inlaws and two of his children - one of whome survived to testify against him. He was seen on the church sercurity camereas, left weapons on the scene covered in his prints, plus eye witnesses. He defended himself. Claimed he was framed. Lost - given the DP. Appeals -- based on "incompetant representation. :mad:

[Jolie Rouge]

Back to Topic : The brutal murder of James Byrd....

James Byrd, Jr. (May 2, 1949 – June 7, 1998) was an African-American who was murdered by three white men in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Allen Berry, Lawrence Russell Brewer, and John William King dragged Byrd behind a pick-up truck along a asphalt pavement after they wrapped a heavy logging chain around his ankles. Byrd was pulled along for about two miles as the truck swerved from side to side.
Byrd, who remained conscious throughout most of the ordeal, was killed when his body hit the edge of a culvert severing his right arm and head. The murderers drove on for another mile before dumping his torso in front of an African-American cemetery in Jasper. Byrd's lynching-by-dragging gave impetus to passage of a Texas hate crimes law. It later led to the Federal October 22, 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, commonly known as the "Matthew Shepard Act". President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on October 28, 2009.

On June 7, 1998, Byrd, age 49, accepted a ride from Berry (age 24), Brewer (age 31), and King (age 23). Berry, who was driving, was acquainted with Byrd from around town. Instead of taking him home, the three men took him to a remote county road out of town, beating him with anything they could find, urinated on his unconscious body, chained him by the ankles to their pickup truck, and dragged him for three miles. Brewer later claimed that Byrd's throat had been slashed by Shawn Berry before he was dragged. However, forensic evidence suggests that Byrd had been attempting to keep his head up while being dragged, and an autopsy suggested that Byrd was alive during much of the dragging. Byrd died after his right arm and head were severed after his body hit a culvert. His body had caught the culvert on the side of the road, resulting in Byrd's decapitation.

Berry, Brewer, and King dumped their victim's mutilated remains in front of an African-American cemetery on Huff Creek Road; the three men then went to a barbecue. Along the area where Byrd was dragged, authorities found a wrench with "Berry" written on it. They also found a lighter that was inscribed with "Possum", which was King's prison nickname. The following morning, Byrd's limbs were found scattered across a seldom-used road. The police found 75 places that were littered with Byrd's remains. State law enforcement officials, along with Jasper's District Attorney, determined that since Brewer and King were well-known white supremacists, the murder was a hate crime. They decided to call upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation less than 24 hours after the discovery of Byrd's remains.

King's body bore several tattoos: a black man hanging from a tree, Nazi symbols, the words "Aryan Pride," and the patch for a gang of white supremacist inmates known as the Confederate Knights of America. In a jailhouse letter to Brewer that was intercepted by jail officials, King expressed pride in the crime and said he realized in committing the murder he might have to die. "Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history. Death before dishonor. Sieg Heil!", King wrote. An officer investigating the case also testified that witnesses said King had referenced The Turner Diaries after beating Byrd.

Berry, Brewer, and King were tried and convicted for Byrd's murder. Brewer and King received the death penalty, while Berry was sentenced to life in prison.

[Jolie Rouge]

White supremacist executed for Texas dragging
By MICHAEL GRACZYK - Associated Press | AP – 1 hr 50 mins ago

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A white supremacist gang member was executed Wednesday evening for the infamous dragging death slaying of a black man.

James Byrd Jr., 49, was chained to the back of a pickup truck and pulled whip-like to his death along a bumpy asphalt road in one of the most grisly hate crime murders in recent Texas history.

Lawrence Russell Brewer, 44, was asked if he had any final words, to which he replied: "No. I have no final statement." A single tear hung on the edge of his right eye.

He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m., 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing into his arms, both covered with intricate black tattoos.

Brewer's parents and two of Byrd's sisters were in attendance.

Appeals to the courts for Brewer were exhausted and no last-day attempts to save his life were filed.

Besides Brewer, John William King, now 36, also was convicted of capital murder and sent to death row for Byrd's death, which shocked the nation for its brutality. King's conviction and death sentence remain under appeal. A third man, Shawn Berry, 36, received a life prison term. "One down and one to go," Billy Rowles, the retired sheriff who first investigated the horrific scene, said. "That's kind of cruel but that's reality."

Byrd's sister, Clara Taylor, said someone from her brother's family needed to be present to watch Brewer die so she was among witnesses in the death chamber. "He had choices," she said Tuesday, referring to Brewer. "He made the wrong choices."

While the lethal injection wouldn't compare to the horrible death her brother endured, "Knowing you're going to be executed, that has to be a sobering thought," she said.

It was about 2:30 a.m. on a Sunday, June 7, 1998, when witnesses saw Byrd walking on a road not far from his home in Jasper, a town of more than 7,000 northeast of Houston. Many folks knew he lived off disability checks, couldn't afford his own car and walked where he needed to go. Another witness then saw him riding in the bed of a dark pickup.

Six hours later, the bloody mess found after daybreak was thought at first to be animal road kill. Rowles, a former Texas state trooper who had taken office as sheriff the previous year, believed it was a hit-and-run fatality but evidence didn't match up with someone caught beneath a vehicle. Body parts were scattered and the blood trail began with footprints at what appeared to be the scene of a scuffle. "I didn't go down that road too far before I knew this was going to be a bad deal," he said at Brewer's trial.

Fingerprints taken from the headless torso identified the victim as Byrd. Testimony showed the three men and Byrd drove out into the county and stopped along an isolated logging road. A fight broke out and the outnumbered Byrd was tied to the truck bumper with a 24-foot (7-meter) logging chain. Three miles (5 kilometers) later, what was left of his shredded remains was dumped between a black church and cemetery where the pavement ended on the remote road.

Brewer, King and Berry were in custody by the end of the next day.

The crime put Jasper under a national spotlight and lured the likes of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Panthers, among others, to try to exploit the notoriety of the case which continues — many say unfairly — to brand Jasper more than a decade later.

King was tried first, in Jasper. Brewer's trial was moved 150 miles (240 kilometers) away to Bryan. Berry was tried back in Jasper.

http://news.yahoo.com/white-supremacist-executed-texas-dragging-232847277.html