A man who helped carry out the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. — one of the most horrific hate crimes in modern American history — was executed by injection on Wednesday evening in a Texas prison.
John William King, 44, was one of three men convicted for the murder. He is the second person to die for the crime that made news around the world and helped inspire Congress to pass federal hate crime legislation.
King was pronounced dead at 7:08 p.m. (8:08 p.m. ET) at Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville.
According to Jeremy Desel with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, King had his eyes closed and replied “No” to the warden when asked whether he had any last words.
King did give a written statement that said, “Capital Punishment: Them without the capital get the punishment.”
Desel said the execution was delayed because the case went to the US Supreme Court before moving ahead at 6:56 p.m.
Clara Byrd Taylor said while watching her brother’s killer die she felt nothing.
“There was no sense of relief,” she said.
She called the execution a “just punishment.”
King showed no remorse, not Wednesday, not ever, she said.
The killer had his eyes closed the entire time he was on the gurney, Desel said, and only moved once, taking one deep breath as the execution started.
Byrd’s acquaintances told police they’d seen Byrd, who was black, at a party the night of June 6, 1998, that he’d left around 2 a.m. and was later seen riding in the bed of a pickup with three white men in the cab.
Authorities said King, Lawrence Russell Brewer and Shawn Berry picked up Byrd and drove him to a secluded area where they beat him and spray-painted his face before tying a logging chain around his ankles and dragging him behind a pickup truck for almost 3 miles.
Brewer died by injection in 2011. Berry was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for parole in 2038.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/24/us/james-byrd-killer-execution-john-william-king/index.html