Advertisement

White supremacist executed in Texas for brutal dragging death of black man

A self-confessed racist behind one of the most gruesome hate crimes in US history has been executed in Texas.

John William King was executed by lethal injection for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr, who was chained to the back of a truck and dragged for nearly three miles along a secluded road near Jasper, Texas, in 1998.

Mr Byrd, 49, who prosecutors say was targeted because he was black, was alive for at least two miles before his body was ripped to pieces.

John William King was executed for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas, in 1998 (Picture: AP)
John William King was executed for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas, in 1998 (Picture: AP)
UNDATED PHOTO - Undated family photo of James Byrd, Jr. Byrd was murdered in Jasper, Texas in the early hours of June 7. Prosecutors scrambled on June 10 to build a death penalty case for three white supremacists charged with chaining him to a pickup truck and dragging him down a road until his head was torn off.    DCA
James Byrd Jr. Byrd was chained to a pickup truck and dragged down a road (Picture: Reuters)

King, 44, was put to death at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, on Thursday.

He was the second man executed for Mr Byrd’s killing. Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in 2011 and the third participant, Shawn Allen Berry, was sentenced to life in prison.

READ MORE

G4S driver steals £1 million from van he abandons in street

Passenger rushed to hospital after ‘fall from height’ at Gatwick Airport

Human tongues ‘can actually smell’

King, who was openly racist and had offensive tattoos on his body, including one of a black man with a noose around his neck hanging from a tree, kept his eyes closed as witnesses arrived in the death chamber and never turned his head toward relatives of his victim.

Asked by Warden Bill Lewis if he had a final statement, King replied: “No.”

En esta imagen difundida por el Departamento de Justicia Penal de Texas se ve a John William King, un supremacista blanco que fue ejecutado por organizar uno de los crímenes raciales más grotescos en la historia de Estados Unidos. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)
King was openly racist and had offensive tattoos on his body, including one of a black man with a noose around his neck hanging from a tree (Picture: Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)

In a statement released after his execution, he said: “Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment.”

King was the fourth inmate executed this year in the US and the third in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.

James Byrd Jr's sisters Mylinda Byrd Washington (left) and Louvon Byrd Harris (61) with photographs of their brother (AP Photo/Juan Lozano)
James Byrd Jr's sisters Mylinda Byrd Washington (left) and Louvon Byrd Harris (61) with photographs of their brother (AP Photo/Juan Lozano)

Mr Byrd’s sister, Clara Taylor, who watched her brother’s killer die, said he “showed no remorse then and showed no remorse tonight”.

“The execution for his crime was just punishment,” she said. “I felt nothing — no sense of relief, no sense of happy this is over with.”

King’s lawyers had tried to stop his execution, arguing his constitutional rights were violated because his trial lawyers did not present his claims of innocence and conceded his guilt but the US Supreme Court rejected the 11th-hour appeal.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also turned down King’s request for either a commutation of his sentence or a 120-day reprieve.

---Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK---