White Supremacist Sentenced To Die For Dragging Death Of Black Man In Jasper, TX

Jet, March 15, 1999

Jasper, TX-White supremacist John William King was recently sentenced to die by lethal injection for dragging a Black man to his death behind a pickup truck.

The 11 White jurors and their elected Black foreman took just under three hours to render the decision that King should die, about the same amount of time as they took to find King guilty earlier in the week.

"As a group, we all agree that we are just common citizens who felt that serving on this jury was an obligation and not a privilege," foreman Joe Collins read from a statement. "Each of us believe that justice has been served."

Jurors convicted King, 24, of capital murder in the death of James Byrd Jr. After the sentencing decision was read, Byrd family members wiped their eyes but declined State District Judge Joe Bob Golden's offer to address King.

Renee Mullins, Byrd's daughter, said later that she was "very satisfied" with the decision.

Byrd's nephew, Darrell Verrett, held up his fingers in the peace sign and said, "Everything's OK."

After King was convicted earlier in the week, Byrd's son, Ross Byrd, said: "All I know is that there's one down and two to go."

After King was sentenced to death, one of Byrd's sisters, Mary Verrett, said her family felt for King's ailing father who had pleaded during the trial for the court to spare his son's life.

"I wanted to say to him we can understand his loss," Verrett said. "We can understand his grief. Our hearts go out to him. But we have to realize that it was his son, Bill King, who made the choice to bring this grief upon his father."

As King was led from the courthouse he was asked if he had anything to say to the Byrd family, he responded with an obscenity.

Byrd's sister, Mary Verrett, later said, "I wouldn't expect him to say, `God bless the Byrd family.' It just sums up the total personality of this young man."

Only one White man has ever been executed in Texas for killing a Black--a farmer who killed another farmer's favorite slave in the 1850s.

King's father, Ronald King, wheelchair-bound with an oxygen tube to ease his emphysema, pleaded for the jury to spare his son's life.

"Anything is better than losing him," the father said. "We've invested a lot of love in that boy."

King's father said he did not agree with his son's racist beliefs.

Byrd, 49, died after he was picked up while walking home from a party last June. He was pulled nearly three miles behind a pickup truck, chained by his ankles. A pathologist testified that Byrd was alive until his head and right arm were severed from his torso, which was dumped across from a Black cemetery northeast of Jasper.

Two other White men, Shawn Berry, 24, and Lawrence Brewer, 31, are awaiting trial for the crime.