White supremacist executed for Texas dragging

[murakami]

White supremacist executed for Texas dragging

By MICHAEL GRACZYK
updated 1 hour 26 minutes ago

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — White supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed Wednesday evening for the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas.

Byrd, 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.

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.
Story: Stigma lingers in infamous town as Texas prepares execution for dragging death

"One down and one to go," said Billy Rowles, the retired Jasper County sheriff who first investigated the horrific scene. "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 planned to be in the death chamber.

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

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 about 125 miles 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 and some 10 miles away on Huff Creek Road, 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 about 10 miles and stopped along an isolated logging road. A fight broke out and the outnumbered Byrd was tied to the truck bumper with a 24½-foot logging chain. Three miles 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. Byrd's killing 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 away to Bryan. Berry was tried in Jasper.

Brewer, from Sulphur Springs, about 180 miles to the northwest, had been convicted of cocaine possession. He met King, a convicted burglar from Jasper, in a Texas prison where they got involved in a KKK splinter group known as the Confederate Knights of America and adorned themselves with racist tattoos. Evidence showed Brewer had violated parole and was involved in a number of burglaries and thefts in the Jasper area.

burn in hell, you ....ing piece of shit.

[vampiregenocide]

....ing grim. Justice has been dealt though.

[murakami]

you know what really gets me? he cried... what a goddamned pussy. the man he killed
died an EXTREMELY brutal death, and this pansy ass gets a needle, which specialist claim is pain free, and he is ....ing crying. crying baby bitch

his death brings nothing, but his tears make me laugh.

[Blake1970]

Fantastic news!

[Bigfan]

.... the death penalty, this guy deserves to be the prison bitch of a large black man

[chronocide]

Originally Posted by murakami

you know what really gets me? he cried... what a goddamned pussy. the man he killed
died an EXTREMELY brutal death, and this pansy ass gets a needle, which specialist claim is pain free, and he is ....ing crying. crying baby bitch

his death brings nothing, but his tears make me laugh.

Most experts will tell you a very high percentage of lethal injection executions are excruciating - though by the time the injection which kills you is administered your tear ducts wouldn't work, whether you can feel or not, I believe, so that's not the reason for his tears.

His pain (be it physical or metal) makes you laugh? Really? Christ. That's about as good an anti-death-penalty advert as I conceive. Mirth in vengeful pain. I'm astonished. Really.

[murakami]

Originally Posted by chronocide

Most experts will tell you a very high percentage of lethal injection executions are excruciating - though by the time the injection which kills you is administered your tear ducts wouldn't work, whether you can feel or not, I believe, so that's not the reason for his tears.

His pain (be it physical or metal) makes you laugh? Really? Christ. That's about as good an anti-death-penalty advert as I conceive. Mirth in vengeful pain. I'm astonished. Really.

dont take it the wrong way. i do not literally laugh at his demise. i am saying it's quite ironic that he would cry when his death is much less painful than being dragged on rugged terrain, having your skin and limbs rip off while you're still alive.

[Stealthdjentstic]

I approve.

[DVRP]

It's a little disappointing to me when someone does something as terrible as that, and just gets to die from a lethal injection, but don't get me wrong. I'm glad the sick sob is gone.

[drgamble]

Texas prisons end special final meals for those about to be executed after lawmaker complains - The Washington Post

Apparently, his final meal request was such that they are no longer taking final meal requests from Death Row inmates.

[vampiregenocide]

Originally Posted by drgamble

Texas prisons end special final meals for those about to be executed after lawmaker complains - The Washington Post

Apparently, his final meal request was such that they are no longer taking final meal requests from Death Row inmates.

Now I'm normally the first person to say '.... prisoners, they should learn the hard way', however if you are going to execute someone, you need to have some respect about it. Giving a man a last meal of his choice is the least you can do in that situation. Taking that from people just seems wrong. There is no honour at all in that sort of killing. If this man wants to abuse that right, then so be it, his loss, however it shouldn't then be taken from others. He's already taken the rights of one man, his legacy needn't take more.

[AxeHappy]

I've always thought the final meal thing was ....ing bullshit myself.

If their is tax money for shit like that, .... the guy sentenced to death and give the homeless some ....ing food.

[Guitarman700]

There is no honor in ANY sort of killing. The death Penalty is never justice, just revenge. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

[vampiregenocide]

Originally Posted by Guitarman700

There is no honor in ANY sort of killing. The death Penalty is never justice, just revenge. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

I disagree. But I can completely see where you're coming from.

[murakami]

i find it highly offensive that asshole took advantage of the last meal tradition. he ordered all that food and didn't even eat it. an asshole to the bitter end.

death was truly to good for him. they should have drowned him.

[SirMyghin]

Originally Posted by AxeHappy

I've always thought the final meal thing was ....ing bullshit myself.

If their is tax money for shit like that, .... the guy sentenced to death and give the homeless some ....ing food.

Same, they surrenderred their rights to humanity and ANY priveledges when they decided they could commit such attrocities. Bad enough you can't harm someone who breaks into your house nowadays without being taken in for assault.

[chronocide]

Originally Posted by SirMyghin

Bad enough you can't harm someone who breaks into your house nowadays without being taken in for assault.

Well you can... It's acceptable force that marks where you're breaking the law, no?

[SirMyghin]

Originally Posted by chronocide

Well you can... It's acceptable force that marks where you're breaking the law, no?

Depends where you live, in Canada, you can't hurt them. The Liberal gov't put that one in a while ago. While stepping on your rights, the criminals still have their own. Fancy stuff that. Our government was worried criminals are people too apparently, more so than the victim even.

Doesn't have much to do with justic though, unlike this thread (which is good, imo).

[chronocide]

Originally Posted by SirMyghin

Depends where you live, in Canada, you can't hurt them. The Liberal gov't put that one in a while ago. While stepping on your rights, the criminals still have their own. Fancy stuff that. Our government was worried criminals are people too apparently, more so than the victim even.

Doesn't have much to do with justic though, unlike this thread (which is good, imo).

Not even so much as restraint? Or whilst under threat? That would be preposterous, certainly.

People get up in arms about how you can be charged for harming an intruder in your own home in the UK, but the case they're always taking precedent from is when a farmer shot a teenage robber who was running away in the back with a shotgun.

[Grand Moff Tim]

The degree to which you can defend yourself and your property from an intruder in the US depends on the state. Here in my state, Illinois, you pretty much have to exit quietly out the back door if someone breaks in, because you're all sorts of legally liable for anything that happens. In Texas or Arizona, though, have fun getting shot, burglars!

EDIT TO ADD: I'm pretty sure that in Illinois, if someone attacks you with a knife, if you disarm him and defend yourself with his knife, you're the one who's breaking the law and is legally liable. Assault with a deadly weapon, and all. Apparently once you take his knife, you're supposed to stick it in your pocket or throw it in a gutter or whatever. I don't know. I'm pretty drunk right now.

[Stealthdjentstic]

Originally Posted by SirMyghin

Same, they surrenderred their rights to humanity and ANY priveledges when they decided they could commit such attrocities. Bad enough you can't harm someone who breaks into your house nowadays without being taken in for assault.

The only final they should be getting a cockmeat sammich from big bubba.

[TRENCHLORD]

Originally Posted by Stealthtastic

The only final they should be getting a cockmeat sammich from big bubba.

Yeah, call that big dude from THE GREEN MILE!!!

[Scar Symmetry]

That is a ....ing grim death, what a ....ed up guy. Can't say I'm opposed to the sentence.

[Rick]

Peace out, ya punk bitch. Enjoy hell.

[DrakkarTyrannis]

Originally Posted by Guitarman700

There is no honor in ANY sort of killing. The death Penalty is never justice, just revenge. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

I disagree. Not only do I think the death penalty is fine, I think it should be extended to other crimes beyond just murder...AND I think the person should die in the manner that landed them there. Tie him to something and drag him down a street. Makes you think twice about whether or not you want to do something to someone, and if you don't think about it and you just do it, then in my opinion you get exactly what you deserve