Murder of James Byrd Jr.

James Byrd Jr. (May 2, 1949 – June 7, 1998) was an African American man who was murdered by three white supremacists in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer and John King dragged Byrd for three miles behind a pickup truck along an asphalt road. Byrd, who remained conscious for much of his ordeal, was killed about halfway through the dragging when his body hit the edge of a culvert, severing his right arm and head. The murderers drove on for another ​1 1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) before dumping Byrd's torso in front of a black church and cemetery in Jasper.[1][2]

Brewer and King were the first white men to be sentenced to death for killing a black person in the history of modern Texas.[3] Byrd's lynching-by-dragging gave impetus to passage of a Texan hate crimes law, which later led to passage by Congress of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, commonly known as the Matthew Shepard Act, in 2009.[4] Brewer was executed by lethal injection for his involvement in this crime by the State of Texas on September 21, 2011.[5] King was executed by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, on April 24, 2019.[6][7][8][9] Berry was sentenced to life imprisonment and will be eligible for parole in 2038.[10]

Victim
James Byrd Jr.
Born(1949-05-02)May 2, 1949
Jasper County, Texas, U.S.
DiedJune 7, 1998(1998-06-07) (aged 49)
Jasper, Texas, U.S.
OccupationVacuum salesman
Children3

James Byrd Jr. was born on May 2, 1949, in Jasper County, Texas, the third of nine children, to Stella Mae (1925–2010) and James Byrd Sr. (1924–2020).[11] His mother was a Sunday School teacher and his father was a deacon at the Greater New Bethel Church. He graduated from Jasper Rowe High School in 1967, the last segregated class. After graduating from high school, he married and had three children: Renee, Ross, and Jamie. He worked as a vacuum salesman.[12][13][14]

Ross Byrd, the only son of James Byrd Jr., has been involved with "Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation",[15] an organization that opposes capital punishment. He campaigned to spare the lives of those who murdered his father and appeared briefly in the documentary Deadline.[16][17]

Murder

On June 7, 1998, Byrd, age 49, accepted a ride from Shawn Berry (age 23), Lawrence Brewer (age 31), and John King (age 23). Berry, who was driving, was acquainted with Byrd from around town. Instead of taking Byrd home, the three men took Byrd to a remote county road out of town, beat him severely, spray-painted his face,[18] urinated and defecated on him,[19] and chained him by his ankles to their pickup truck before dragging him for about 3 miles (4.8 km). Brewer later claimed that Byrd's throat had been slashed by 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 about halfway along the route of his dragging, when his right arm and head were severed as his body hit a culvert.[2] While almost all of Byrd's ribs were fractured, his brain and skull were found intact, further suggesting that he maintained consciousness while he was being dragged.[20]

Berry, Brewer, and King dumped the mutilated remains of Byrd's body in front of an African-American church on Huff Creek Road, then drove off to a barbecue.[21] A motorist found Byrd's decapitated remains the following morning.[22] Along the area where Byrd was dragged, police found a wrench with "Berry" written on it. They also found a lighter that was inscribed with "Possum", which was King's prison nickname.[21] The police found 81 places that included portions of Byrd's remains.[21][23] Since Brewer and King were well-known white supremacists, it was determined by state law enforcement officials that the murder was a hate crime.[24] They called upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation less than 24 hours after the discovery of Byrd's remains.[25] The special agent in charge of the FBI's Houston office said that they were assisting because of the case's "extreme circumstances".[26]

King had several racist 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.[27] In a jailhouse letter to Brewer that was intercepted by jail officials, King expressed pride in the crime and said that he realized while committing the murder that he might have to die. "Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history. Death before dishonor. Sieg Heil!" King wrote.[2] An officer investigating the case also testified that witnesses said that King had referenced The Turner Diaries after beating Byrd.[28]

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. Brewer was executed by lethal injection on September 21, 2011, and King was executed on April 24, 2019.[5][6][7][29]

Perpetrators

Shawn Berry
Shawn Allen Berry
Born (1975-02-12) February 12, 1975
Texas, U.S.
Criminal statusIncarcerated at Ramsey Unit; earliest possible release date June 2038
Criminal chargeCapital murder
PenaltyLife imprisonment

Shawn Allen Berry (born February 12, 1975) claimed that Brewer and King were almost entirely responsible for the crime. Brewer, however, testified that Berry had cut Byrd's throat before he was tied to the truck. The jury decided that little evidence supported this claim.[30] As a result, Berry was spared the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison. As of 2020, Berry was living in protective custody at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Ramsey Unit,[7] and will be first eligible for parole when he is 63 years old in June 2038.[31] He spends 23 hours per day in an 8-by-6-foot (2.4 by 1.8 m) cell, with 1 hour for exercise. Berry married Christie Marcontell by proxy.[32] Marcontell was Berry's girlfriend at the time of the murder. They have one child together.

Lawrence Brewer
Lawrence Russell Brewer
Born(1967-03-13)March 13, 1967
Lamar County, Texas, U.S.
DiedSeptember 21, 2011(2011-09-21) (aged 44)
Huntsville, Texas, U.S.
Criminal statusExecuted
Criminal chargeCapital murder
PenaltyDeath (September 1999)

Lawrence Russell Brewer (March 13, 1967 – September 21, 2011) was a white supremacist, who prior to Byrd's murder had served a prison sentence for drug possession and burglary. He was paroled in 1991. After violating his parole conditions in 1994, Brewer was returned to prison. According to his court testimony, he joined a white supremacist prison gang with King in order to safeguard himself from other inmates.[33] Brewer and King became friends in the Beto Unit prison.[7] A psychiatrist testified that Brewer did not appear repentant for his crimes. Brewer was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death.[34] Brewer, TDCJ#999327,[35] was on death row at the Polunsky Unit,[7] but he was executed in the Huntsville Unit on September 21, 2011.[36] The day before his execution, Brewer expressed no remorse for his crime, as he told KHOU 11 News in Houston: "As far as any regrets, no, I have no regrets. No, I'd do it all over again, to tell you the truth."[37]

Before his execution, Brewer ordered a last meal that prompted the end of last meal requests in Texas. The meal included two chicken-fried steaks with gravy and sliced onions; a triple-patty bacon cheeseburger; a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapeños; a bowl of fried okra with ketchup; one pound of barbecued meat with half a loaf of white bread; three fully loaded fajitas; a meat-lover's pizza; one pint of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream; a slab of peanut-butter fudge with crushed peanuts on top; and three root beers. When the meal was presented, he told officials that he was not hungry and as a result he did not eat any of it. The meal was discarded, prompting State Senator John Whitmire to ask Texas prison officials to end the 87-year-old tradition of giving last meals to condemned inmates. The prison agency's executive director responded by stating that the practice had been terminated effective immediately.[38]

John King
John William King
Born(1974-11-03)November 3, 1974
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
DiedApril 24, 2019(2019-04-24) (aged 44)
Huntsville, Texas, U.S.
Criminal statusExecuted
Criminal chargeCapital murder
PenaltyDeath (February 1999)

John William "Bill"[39] King (November 3, 1974 – April 24, 2019) was Berry's longtime friend.[24] He was accused of beating Byrd with a bat and then dragging him behind a pickup truck until he died. King, who prior to the murder had recently been released from a Texas prison, said that he had been repeatedly gang raped in prison by black inmates.[40] He was found guilty and sentenced to death for his role in Byrd's kidnapping and murder, and was on death row at the Polunsky Unit.[7]

On December 21, 2018, King's execution by lethal injection was scheduled for April 24, 2019.[8] On April 22, 2019, his appeals to both the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles were denied.[41][42] He was executed at the Huntsville Unit on April 24, 2019.[43][44]

The condemned perpetrators were held at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit.
Huntsville Unit, where Brewer and King were executed

Reactions

Numerous aspects of the Byrd murder echo lynching traditions that were common in the post-Civil War south. These include mutilation or decapitation and revelry, such as a barbecue or a picnic, either during or after a lynching. Byrd's murder was strongly condemned by Jesse Jackson and the Martin Luther King Center as an act of vicious racism[45] and it also focused national attention on the prevalence of white supremacist prison gangs.

Three sisters of James Byrd are Jehovah's Witnesses, and in a joint statement said: "Having a loved one tortured and lynched produced an unimaginable sense of loss and pain. How does one respond to such a brutal act? Retaliation, hateful speech, or promotion of hate-ridden propaganda never entered our mind. We thought: 'What would Jesus have done? How would he have responded?' The answer was crystal clear. His message would have been one of peace and hope."[46]

The victim's family created the James Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing after his death. Basketball star Dennis Rodman paid their funeral expenses and gave Byrd's family $25,000. Fight promoter Don King gave Byrd's children $100,000 to be put towards their educational expenses.[47]

On October 7, 1998, an episode of Law & Order titled "DWB" (driving while black) referenced the murder within the plot.[48] Instead of three white supremacists, however, the killers were three white New York City police officers.[48] As the plot goes, the officers stop and arrest a black man for no reason, and then proceed to drag him to his death, after tying him to the car.[48]

In 2003, a movie about the crime, titled Jasper, Texas, was produced and aired on Showtime. The same year, a documentary titled Two Towns of Jasper, made by filmmakers Marco Williams and Whitney Dow, premiered on PBS's P.O.V. series.[49]

While employed as a radio DJ at station WARW in Washington, DC, Doug Tracht (also known as the "Greaseman") made a derogatory comment referring to James Byrd after playing Lauryn Hill's song "Doo Wop (That Thing)".[50] The February 1999 incident proved catastrophic to Tracht's radio career, igniting protests from black and white listeners alike. He was quickly fired from WARW and lost his position as a volunteer deputy sheriff in Falls Church, Virginia.[51]

In May 2004, two white teens, Joshua Lee Talley and John Matthew Fowler, were arrested and charged with criminal mischief for desecrating James Byrd Jr.'s grave with racial slurs and profanities.[52]

Impact on US politics

Some advocacy groups, such as the NAACP National Voter Fund, made an issue of this case during George W. Bush's presidential campaign in 2000. They accused Bush of implicit racism, since as governor of Texas, he opposed hate-crime legislation. Also, citing a prior commitment, Bush did not appear at Byrd's funeral. Because two of the three murderers were sentenced to death and the third murderer was sentenced to life in prison (all three of them were charged with and convicted of capital murder, the highest felony level in Texas), Governor Bush maintained, "we don't need tougher laws". The 77th Texas Legislature passed the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act. With the signature of Governor Rick Perry, who inherited the balance of Bush's unexpired term, the act became Texas state law in 2001.[53] In 2009, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act expanded the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes which are motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.[54]

Musical and poetry tributes

On the 2001 album Pieces of Me by singer-songwriter Lori McKenna, the song "Pink Sweater" is dedicated to Byrd;[55] it condemns his murderers and references their death-penalty convictions with the raucous refrain, "I'll be the one in the pink sweater, dancing around when you're gone." In 2010, Alabama musician Matthew Mayfield wrote, recorded, and released a song in Byrd's honor. The tune, titled "Still Alive", is the fourth track on Mayfield's EP You're Not Home. "Still Alive" clearly related a stark bitterness towards racism and equated such hate crimes with genocide. "Tell Me Why", featuring Mary J. Blige, mentions Byrd on Will Smith's fourth album, Lost and Found.[56] Byrd's son Ross recorded the rap album Undeniable Resurrection and dedicated it to his father.[57]

"Jasper", by Confrontation Camp, is the fifth track on the album Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear (2000).[58] "Guitar Drag" by sound artist Christian Marclay is a video- and sound-installation about the murder of James Byrd (2000).[59] "I Heard 'Em Say" by Ryan Bingham is about Byrd's murder and the racially charged climate around Jasper following the crime (2012).[56]

Byrd's murder is the subject of Maryland poet laureate Lucille Clifton's piece "jasper texas 1998"[60] as well as Jeffrey Thomson's piece "Achilles in Jasper, Texas".[61]

The tale of Byrd's murder, and that of Matthew Shepard, are told in a verse of the song "Trouble the waters" by Big Country on their album Driving to Damascus (named John Wayne's Dream in its US release).

See also

References
  1. "3 whites indicted in dragging death of black man in Texas". CNN. July 6, 1998.
  2. "Closing arguments today in Texas dragging-death trial". CNN.com. February 22, 1999. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  3. Robertson, Campbell. "Texas Executes White Supremacist for 1998 Dragging Death of James Byrd Jr". The New York Times.
  4. Jackson, David (October 28, 2009). "Obama signs hate-crimes law rooted in crimes of 1998". USA Today.
  5. "White supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer executed for dragging death". CBS News. September 22, 2011.
  6. "King John William". Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  7. Keys, Perryn. "Jasper: The Road Back: Did prison time turn man into one of Byrd's killers?" Beaumont Enterprise. June 9, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2010.
  8. Graves, Darrian (December 21, 2018). "Execution date set for John William King for the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd, Junior". KFDM.
  9. "Texas executes white supremacist who dragged black man to death". CBS News. Associated Press. April 24, 2019.
  10. Teitz, Liz (June 2, 2018). "Byrd's family: Don't forget him". The Beaumont Enterprise.
  11. Stewart, Steve W. (September 3, 2020). "James Byrd, Sr. has died at the age of 95". KJAS Radio. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  12. "James Byrd Jr". Biography.com. A&E Television Networks. July 10, 2019. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
  13. "Mother of James Byrd Jr. dies". KDFM. October 10, 2010. Archived from the original on February 11, 2011.
  14. Wikstrom, Elaine (October 7, 2010). "Stella Byrd, mother of Jasper dragging victim, dies at 85". Houston Chronicle. Beaumont Enterprise.
  15. "Murder Victims Families of Reconciliation". Mvfr.org. Archived from the original on September 13, 2002. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  16. Jeralyn (July 5, 2002). "Families of Murder Victims Opposed to Capital Punishment". Death Penalty. Talk Left: The Politics of Crime.
  17. Leung, Rebecca (May 7, 2003). "Killing Time". CBS News.
  18. Saegert, Rhiannon (April 23, 2019). "Baylor researchers continue work on 1998 Jasper murder as another chapter unfolds". Waco Tribune. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  19. Santiago, Ellyn (April 24, 2019). "John William King: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  20. Paul H. Robinson; Shima Baradaran Baughman; Michael T. Cahill (December 31, 2016). Criminal Law: Case Studies and Controversies. Wolters Kluwer. p. 362. ISBN 978-1-4548-8172-8.
  21. "Justice in Jasper". Archived from the original on December 27, 2005. Retrieved May 22, 2015., Texas Observer, September 17, 1999.
  22. Duggan, Paul (February 16, 1999). "First Trial Opens in Dragging Death". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  23. Rosenblatt, Josh (July 25, 2013). "Long Road Out of Jasper: A Documentary Chronicles James Byrd Jr.'s Life and Tragic Death". Texas Observer. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  24. Boyd, Lorenzo M. "Murder of James Byrd, Jr.". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  25. United States Congress (2012). Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 4774.
  26. Pressley, Sue Anne (June 10, 1998). "Black Man Dragged to Death". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 14, 2018. the bureau is assisting in the investigation because of 'the extreme circumstances' of the case
  27. "Texas sheriff 'knew somebody was murdered because he was black'". CNN. February 16, 1999. Archived from the original on May 8, 2006. Retrieved May 22, 2006.
  28. Time Waster. "The Texas Dragging Death". The Smoking Gun. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  29. Skelton, Eleanor (December 22, 2018). "Execution date set for Jasper man convicted in 1998 dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. this spring". KVUE. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
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  38. MANNY FERNANDEZ (September 22, 2011). "Texas Death Row Kitchen Cooks Its Last 'Last Meal'". New York Times.
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  40. "Prison Rape - It's No Joke". Archived from the original on March 15, 2007. Retrieved February 9, 2007.
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  44. Chamberlain, Samuel (April 24, 2019). "'Avowed racist' offers no last words before execution for dragging death of black man in Texas". Fox News. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  45. You Can Issue It, But Can You Take It When It Comes Back to You? by Maya Sanders, iUniverse, 2013, p.198
  46. "The Only Way to Eradicate Hate". The Watchtower. August 15, 2000. p. 5. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
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  48. Quinn, Laura (March 2002). "The Politics of Law and Order". The Journal of American Culture. 25 (1–2): 130–133. doi:10.1111/1542-734X.00020.
  49. POV. "POV - Acclaimed Point-of-View Documentary Films". PBS. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  50. "The Reliable Source" Annie Groer, Ann Gerhart. The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: March 18, 1999. pg. C.03
  51. Ahrens, Frank (February 26, 1999). "'GREASEMAN' FIRED AFTER PROTESTS OVER REMARK". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  52. "State briefs: White teens charged in grave desecration - Houston Chronicle". Chron.com. May 12, 2004. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  53. "Texas governor signs into law hate-crimes bill". The Deseret News. Associated Press. May 11, 2001. p. A2.
  54. "Breaking News | Latest News | Current News". FoxNews.com. Archived from the original on October 30, 2009. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  55. Davies, Mike. "Lori McKenna - Pieces of Me (Acoustic Roots)". NetRhythms. Retrieved May 14, 2018. Pink Sweater, a song dedicated to James Byrd
  56. Rouner, Jef (June 7, 2013). "A James Byrd Jr. Memorial Playlist". Houston Press. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  57. Sachdev, Gian (February 19, 2003). "Byrd on a Wire". Philadelphia Weekly. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  58. Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear at AllMusic. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  59. Rees, Christina (June 30, 2015). "Notes on Christian Marclay's "Guitar Drag"". Glasstire. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  60. "jasper texas 1998". www.poetryfoundation.org. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  61. "Achilles in Jasper, Texas | Poetry Database | Split This Rock". www.splitthisrock.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.

Further reading
  • Burch, By Audra D. S. (July 9, 2018). "In Texas, a Decades-Old Hate Crime, Forgiven but Never Forgotten". New York Times.
  • Ainslie, Ricardo. Long Dark Road: Bill King and Murder in Jasper, Texas. University of Texas Press, 2004.
  • King, Joyce. Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas. Pantheon, 2002.
  • Temple-Raston, Dina. A Death in Texas: A Story of Race, Murder, and Small Town's Struggle for Redemption. Henry Holt and Co., January 6, 2002.
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