(Reuters) - A white supremacist convicted of killing James Byrd Jr. in 1998 by dragging the 49-year-old black man behind a truck in one of the most notorious U.S. hate crimes of modern times was executed in Texas on Wednesday.

John William “Bill” King, 44, was put to death by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 7:08 p.m. (0008 GMT Thursday) at the state’s death chamber in Huntsville, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a statement.

The department said King wrote a last statement that read: “Capital Punishment: Them without the capital get the punishment.”

King, along with Shawn Berry and Lawrence Brewer, was accused of kidnapping Byrd while he hitchhiked in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998.

Prosecutors said the men dragged him behind their 1982 Ford pickup truck for 3 miles (5 km) before dumping his body in front of an African-American church. A “KKK” engraved lighter was among the evidence police found at the scene, court documents showed.

Brewer, also a white supremacist, was executed in 2011. Berry was sentenced to life in prison for the crime.

King always maintained his innocence, saying that he left the two other men before Byrd was killed.

The gruesome killing spurred the passing of the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, strengthening punishments for hate crimes in Texas. The murder, along with that of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten and left to die tied to a fence, was also the genesis of the federal hate crimes prevention act passed in 2009.

Byrd’s sister Carla Taylor read from a family statement after she, another of his sisters and his niece witnessed the execution.

FILE PHOTO, 1998: Sheriff Billy Rowles (C) and Texas Ranger Ronnie McBride (R) escort John William "Bill" King, 24, through a Jasper County Courtroom as the punishment phase of the dragging death trial continued February 24. King was found guilty Feb. 23, of capital murder for the death of James Byrd Jr./File Photo

King’s “execution tonight was just punishment for his actions,” she said, noting that Byrd had three children and four grandchildren. “James’ legacy continues to be of peace and nonviolence.”

King was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1999. He was a member of a white supremacist gang and spoke of starting a race war while in prison for a previous crime. He also talked about initiating new members by having them kidnap and murder black people, court documents showed.

King was the third inmate in Texas and the fourth in the United States to be executed in 2019, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.</s>HUNTSVILLE, Texas — An avowed racist who orchestrated one of the most gruesome hate crimes in U.S. history was executed Wednesday in Texas for the dragging death of a black man.

John William King, who was white, received lethal injection for the slaying nearly 21 years ago of James Byrd Jr., who was chained to the back of a truck and dragged for nearly 3 miles along a secluded road in the piney woods outside Jasper, Texas. The 49-year-old Byrd was alive for at least 2 miles before his body was ripped to pieces in the early morning hours of June 7, 1998.

Prosecutors said Byrd was targeted because he was black. 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, according to authorities.

King, 44, was put to death at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. He was the fourth inmate executed this year in the U.S. and the third in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.

King 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.”

Within seconds, the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect. He took a few barely audible breaths and had no other movement. He was pronounced dead at 7:08 p.m. CDT, 12 minutes after the drug began.

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

Byrd’s sister, Clara Taylor, who watched King 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.”

As witnesses emerged from the prison, about two dozen people standing down the street began to cheer.

The killing of Byrd was a hate crime that put a national spotlight on Jasper, a town of about 7,600 residents near the Texas-Louisiana border that was branded with a racist stigma it has tried to shake off ever since. Local officials say the reputation is undeserved.

King’s appellate lawyers had tried to stop his execution, arguing King’s constitutional rights were violated because his trial attorneys didn’t present his claims of innocence and conceded his guilt.

“From the time of indictment through his trial, Mr. King maintained his absolute innocence, claiming that he had left his co-defendants and Mr. Byrd sometime prior to his death and was not present at the scene of his murder. Mr. King repeatedly expressed to defense counsel that he wanted to present his innocence claim at trial,” A. Richard Ellis, one of King’s attorneys, wrote in his petition to the Supreme Court.

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.

Over the years, King had also suggested the brutal slaying was not a hate crime, but a drug deal gone bad involving his co-defendants.

King, who grew up in Jasper and was known as “Bill,” was the second man executed for Byrd’s killing. Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in 2011. The third participant, Shawn Allen Berry, was sentenced to life in prison.

King declined an interview request from The Associated Press in the weeks leading up to his execution.

In a 2001 interview with the AP, King said he was an “avowed racist” but wasn’t “a hate-monger murderer.”

Louvon Byrd Harris, one of Byrd’s sisters, said earlier this month that King’s execution would send a “message to the world that when you do something horrible like that, that you have to pay the high penalty.”

King and Brewer got “an easy way out” compared to “all the suffering” that her brother suffered, Harris said.

Billy Rowles, who led the investigation into Byrd’s death when he was sheriff in Jasper County, said after King was taken to death row in 1999, he offered to detail the crime as soon as his co-defendants were convicted. When Rowles returned, all King would say was, “I wasn’t there.”

“He played us like a fiddle, getting us to go over there and thinking we’re going to get the rest of the story,” said Rowles, who now is sheriff of Newton County.

A week before Brewer was executed in 2011, Rowles said he visited Brewer, who confirmed “the whole thing was Bill King’s idea.”

Mylinda Byrd Washington, another of Byrd’s sisters, said earlier this month that the family will work through the Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing to ensure her brother’s death continues to combat hate everywhere.

“I hope people remember him not as a hate crime statistic. This was a real person. A family man, a father, a brother and a son,” she said.</s>HUNTSVILLE, Texas — An avowed racist who orchestrated one of the most gruesome hate crimes in U.S. history has been executed in Texas for the dragging death of a black man.

John William King, who was white, received lethal injection Wednesday evening for the 1998 slaying of James Byrd Jr., who was chained to the back of a truck and dragged along a road outside Jasper, Texas.

Prosecutors said Byrd was targeted because he was black.

The 44-year-old King was put to death at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.

The hate crime put a national spotlight on Jasper, a town of about 7,600 residents near the Texas-Louisiana border that was branded with a racist stigma it has tried to shake off ever since.

King was the second man executed for Byrd's killing. A third man was sentenced to life in prison.

Original story 



The man said to be the ringleader of three white men who brutally killed a Jasper, Texas, man in what many describe as one of the most heinous hate crimes in the last 25 years is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection Wednesday evening after 6 p.m.

John William King, 44, was convicted in the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd, Jr., of Jasper, along with Lawrence Russell Brewer and Shawn Berry.

Brewer was executed in 2011 and Berry is currently serving a life sentence for the crime.

MORE | King's Application to the Supreme Court for stay of execution

According to a document from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the execution would be carried out with a "single drug protocol of Pentobarbital."

After the execution, King will be buried in Huntsville according to the TDCJ.

A Beaumont film maker has been at the Huntsville Unit all day awaiting the execution of King.

Ricky Jason told members of the news media that while he is against the death penalty he does want to see King executed today for what he described as a modern-day lynching.

Jason, who created a documentary about Byrd's death, also had a letter he said he received several years ago from King.

In the letter King decribed himself as an "unrepentant racist supremacist" and claimed he was not there when Byrd was killed Jason told several members of the media.

He said he was waiting to see Byrd's son, Ross, to show him the letter which he said he had been advised by several not to show the Byrd family until King was executed.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice Director of Communications Jeremy Desel told 12News Wednesday afternoon that he met with King in the holding cell just feet away from the death chamber.

Desel described the walk King would take from the holding cell where he is now at to the actual death chamber as very short and nothing like what we’ve seen in the movies.

The walk from the cell to the death chamber is about 10 feet and most walk the four of five steps on their own and get on the gurney in the death chamber by themselves Desel told 12News.

King’s attitude was “non-descript” according to Desel who said that King did not have much to say and did not show any real emotion.

“He listened more to what we had to say,” Desel reported.

There was no talk of remorse or King’s crime whatsoever Desel told 12News.

The conversation was very technical about how and if he would make a final statement as well as “procedural things” such as accessing a phone to make calls to people on a pre-approved list according to Desel.

While King is able to make calls at tis time Desel said he was unsure if had called anyone.

Desel said King did not request a clergy member.

King’s final meals for the day would be whatever the inmates currently in the Huntsville Unit are all eating on Wednesday with no special requests he said.

This has been TDCJ policy in the last few years Desel said.

Two sisters of James Byrd, Jr., and a niece are listed as witnesses but Desel told 12News previously that he is not sure if they will be there.

All of the witness will not enter the viewing area until right before the “procedure” Desel said.

The TDCJ will be in constant contact with the Texas Governor and the Texas Attorney General as well as the U.S. Supreme Court where King has one final option active according to Desel.

A witness list released by the state showed 29 witnesses listed who may be attending King’s scheduled execution including three of Byrd’s family and five members of the news media.

No personal witnesses were listed for King according to the list.

The list also included 21 Texas Department of Criminal Justice, law enforcement officials, chaplains and victim’s services representatives.

The inclusion of someone’s name on the list does not guarantee they will attend the execution according to Jeremy Desel, director of communications for TDCJ.

King spent what the early morning hours of what could be his last life day alive on his bunk just after midnight and by 3:30 a.m he was seen looking through papers on the floor of his cell according to a “death watch” document released Wednesday afternoon by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

An hour later he was reported to be “cleaning.”

He spent the next few hours on his bunk and then took a shower according to the document.

By 6:30 a.m. King was in the day room talking with someone and he left for visitation at with friends at 8:11 a.m. according to the document.

The last entry on the “death watch” reported that at 11:28 a.m. King was “visiting with friends.”</s>John William King — an avowed racist who orchestrated the murder of James Byrd Jr. in one of America's most gruesome hate crimes of the latter 20th century — was executed Wednesday in Texas, authorities said.

King, 44, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville at 7:08 p.m., a corrections spokesman said.

Asked whether he had a final statement, King said, "No," and then wrote out a single-sentence statement reading: "capital punishment: Them without the capital get the punishment," the spokesman said.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito denied a last-minute application for a stay of execution, which delayed the execution by about an hour.

King was the ringleader of a group that chained Byrd, 49, who was African American, to the back of a 1992 Ford pickup and dragged him to his death over nearly three miles in the woods outside Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. The killers left Byrd's mangled body by a roadside.

Byrd's murder shocked the nation and put a harsh light on race relations in the small town on the Louisiana border.

King, who has never shied from his racist beliefs, had hateful tattoos on his body, including one with a black person hanging by a noose from a tree, Nazi symbols and the words "Aryan Pride."

"Today, we witnessed the peaceful and dignified execution of John King for the savage, brutal and inhumane murder of James on June the 7th of 1988, really a modern-day lynching," said Byrd's older sister, Clara Byrd Taylor.

"King showed no remorse then and showed no remorse tonight," she said. "This execution tonight was just punishment for his actions."

Louvon Byrd Harris, Byrd's younger sister, said King's death at the end of a syringe paled in comparison to the unspeakable terror and pain her brother felt as he was being killed.

"All they are going to do is go to sleep," she said earlier. "But half the things they did to James, all the suffering he had to go through, they still get an easy way out to me."

King's appeals lawyers had argued that trial attorneys seriously erred by conceding his role in the murder and addressing only the penalty phase.

"From the time of indictment through his trial, Mr. King maintained his absolute innocence, claiming that he had left his co-defendants and Mr. Byrd sometime prior to his death and was not present at the scene of his murder," one of the lawyers, A. Richard Ellis, wrote in his petition to the Supreme Court.

"Mr. King repeatedly expressed to defense counsel that he wanted to present his innocence claim at trial," Ellis wrote.

King had also said the Byrd's death wasn't a hate-fueled murder but a drug deal gone awry.

King was the second man to be put to death in the case following the execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer in 2011. The third person convicted of Byrd's murder, Shawn Allen Berry, was sentenced to life behind bars.

Billy Rowles, who led the investigation when he was sheriff of Jasper County, met with Brewer a week before he was put to death. Brewer confirmed that "the whole thing was Bill King's idea," Rowles said.

Rowles said he still couldn't fathom how Byrd's killers could have carried out such a barbaric act.

"The fact that a human being — a living, breathing human being — was jumped, beat, chain-wrapped around his legs and drug behind their truck for close to three miles, that is so far over my head that anyone could do something like that, let alone three of them, could do something like that," Rowles, now the sheriff of Newton County, told NBC Dallas last year.

"Drag that man until his body came apart, and untied the body, left it in the middle of the road so everybody could see, and drove off and went home and went to bed," he said.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles both rejected defense requests to delay or commute King's execution on Monday.

King is the fourth person to have been executed in the United States this year and the third in Texas, which has long been the nation's most active capital punishment state.</s>HUNTSVILLE, Texas - An avowed racist who orchestrated one of the most gruesome hate crimes in U.S. history was executed Wednesday in Texas for the dragging death of a black man.

John William King, who was white, received lethal injection for the slaying nearly 21 years ago of James Byrd Jr., who was chained to the back of a truck and dragged for nearly 3 miles (5 kilometers) along a secluded road in the piney woods outside Jasper, Texas. The 49-year-old Byrd was alive for at least 2 miles (3 kilometers) before his body was ripped to pieces in the early morning hours of June 7, 1998.

Prosecutors said Byrd was targeted because he was black. 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, according to authorities.

King, 44, was put to death at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. He was the fourth inmate executed this year in the U.S. and the third in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

The killing of Byrd was a hate crime that put a national spotlight on Jasper, a town of about 7,600 residents near the Texas-Louisiana border that was branded with a racist stigma it has tried to shake off ever since. Local officials say the reputation is undeserved.

King's appellate lawyers had tried to stop his execution, arguing King's constitutional rights were violated because his trial attorneys didn't present his claims of innocence and conceded his guilt.

"From the time of indictment through his trial, Mr. King maintained his absolute innocence, claiming that he had left his co-defendants and Mr. Byrd sometime prior to his death and was not present at the scene of his murder. Mr. King repeatedly expressed to defense counsel that he wanted to present his innocence claim at trial," A. Richard Ellis, one of King's attorneys, wrote in his petition to the Supreme Court.

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.

Over the years, King had also suggested the brutal slaying was not a hate crime, but a drug deal gone bad involving his co-defendants.

King, who grew up in Jasper and was known as "Bill," was the second man executed for Byrd's killing. Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in 2011. The third participant, Shawn Allen Berry, was sentenced to life in prison.

King declined an interview request from The Associated Press in the weeks leading up to his execution.

In a 2001 interview with the AP, King said he was an "avowed racist" but wasn't "a hate-monger murderer."

Louvon Byrd Harris, one of Byrd's sisters, said King's execution sent a "message to the world that when you do something horrible like that, that you have to pay the high penalty."

Compared to "all the suffering" her brother suffered before his death, Harris said King and Brewer got "an easy way out."

Billy Rowles, who led the investigation into Byrd's death when he was sheriff in Jasper County, said after King was taken to death row in 1999, he offered to detail the crime as soon as his co-defendants were convicted. When Rowles returned, all King would say was, "I wasn't there."

"He played us like a fiddle, getting us to go over there and thinking we're going to get the rest of the story," said Rowles, who now is sheriff of Newton County.

A week before Brewer was executed in 2011, Rowles said he visited Brewer, who confirmed "the whole thing was Bill King's idea."

Mylinda Byrd Washington, another of Byrd's sisters, said she and her family will work through the Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing to ensure her brother's death continues to combat hate everywhere.

"I hope people remember him not as a hate crime statistic. This was a real person. A family man, a father, a brother and a son," she said.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>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 put to death at 7:08 p.m. (8:08 p.m. ET) at Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville.

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 lethal injection in 2011. Berry was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for parole in 2038.

Some of Byrd’s relatives had objected to King’s death sentence.

His sister, Betty Boatner, told CNN in 2011, after Brewer’s execution, that she “forgave him 13 years ago.” His son, Ross, joined protests decrying Brewer’s execution, saying, “You can’t fight murder with murder.” Ross’ sister, Renee Mullins, said after Brewer’s execution that she preferred a life sentence for her dad’s killer.

While most murders are brutal, the viciousness of Byrd’s killing shocked the world. NBA star Dennis Rodman came forward to pay for Byrd’s funeral. Filmmakers produced multiple documentaries. Artists including Geto Boys, Drive-By Truckers and Will Smith referenced the violent saga in their songs. Maryland poet laureate Lucille Clifton penned an ode to Byrd.

Most importantly, the 49-year-old’s slaying spurred Texas and Congress to push through hate crime legislation. The federal act is often associated with the killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay student beaten to death in Wyoming, but the full name of the law is the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

King had long maintained his innocence, once sending a letter to the Dallas Morning News that would later be used against him. He had said that the evidence presented in his case was circumstantial and that Berry was solely responsible for Byrd’s death.

King has repeatedly appealed his guilty verdict, claiming ineffective assistance from his counsel, but a federal appeals court upheld his conviction last year, and the US Supreme Court declined to hear his case in October.

Though the motive was never specifically outlined, race was a theme in King’s trial. Prosecutors presented evidence that King had been an “exalted cyclops” of the white supremacist Confederate Knights of America and regularly drew lynching scenes.

King was the third prisoner executed in Texas this year, after cop killer Robert Mitchell Jennings and triple murderer Billie Wayne Coble.</s>HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A man who orchestrated one of the most gruesome hate crimes in U.S. history was set to be executed Wednesday for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. nearly 21 years ago.

John William King, who is white and an avowed racist, was put on death row for chaining Byrd to the back of a truck and dragging his body for nearly 3 miles along a secluded road in the piney woods outside Jasper, Texas. The 49-year-old Byrd, who was black, was alive for at least 2 miles before his body was ripped to pieces in the early morning hours of June 7, 1998.

Prosecutors said he was targeted because he was black.

Authorities say the 44-year-old King is openly racist and has offensive tattoos on his body, including one of a black man with a noose around his neck hanging from a tree.

If executed, King would be the fourth inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the third in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

The hate crime put a national spotlight on Jasper, a town of about 7,600 residents near the Texas-Louisiana border that was branded with a racist stigma it has tried to shake off ever since. Local officials say the reputation is undeserved.

King's attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution, arguing that King's trial lawyers violated his constitutional rights by not presenting his claims of innocence and conceding his guilt. His lawyers cited a 2018 Supreme Court ruling in a Louisiana case in which the justices said that a lawyer for a criminal defendant cannot override his client's wish to maintain his innocence at trial.

"From the time of indictment through his trial, Mr. King maintained his absolute innocence, claiming that he had left his co-defendants and Mr. Byrd sometime prior to his death and was not present at the scene of his murder. Mr. King repeatedly expressed to defense counsel that he wanted to present his innocence claim at trial," A. Richard Ellis, one of King's appellate attorneys, wrote in his petition to the Supreme Court.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday rejected a similar request to stop the execution.

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

Over the years, King has also suggested the brutal slaying was not a hate crime, but a drug deal gone bad involving his co-defendants.

King, who grew up in Jasper and was known as "Bill," will be the second man executed in the case. Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in 2011. The third participant, Shawn Allen Berry, was sentenced to life in prison.

King declined an interview request from The Associated Press in the weeks leading up to his planned execution.

In a 2001 interview with the AP, King said he was an "avowed racist" but wasn't "a hate-monger murderer."

Louvon Byrd Harris, one of Byrd's sisters, said she and other family members plan to attend King's execution.

"I think it will be a message to the world that when you do something horrible like that, that you have to pay the high penalty," she said.

Harris said she doesn't expect King to be remorseful. Brewer said nothing to Byrd's family before he was put to death.

"All they are going to do is go to sleep. But half the things they did to James, all the suffering he had to go through, they still get an easy way out to me," Harris said.

Billy Rowles, who led the investigation into Byrd's death when he was sheriff in Jasper County, said after King was taken to death row in 1999, he offered to detail the crime as soon as his co-defendants were convicted. When Rowles returned, all King would say was, "I wasn't there."

"He played us like a fiddle, getting us to go over there and thinking we're going to get the rest of the story," said Rowles, now the sheriff of neighboring Newton County.

A week before Brewer was executed in 2011, Rowles said he visited Brewer, who confirmed "the whole thing was Bill King's idea."

Mylinda Byrd Washington, another of Byrd's sisters, said she and her family will work through the Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing to ensure her brother's death continues to combat hate everywhere.

"I hope people remember him not as a hate crime statistic. This was a real person. A family man, a father, a brother and a son," she said.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>A white supremacist convicted of killing James Byrd Jr. in 1998 by dragging the 49-year-old black man behind a truck in one of the most notorious hate crimes in modern times is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Wednesday.

John William “Bill” King, 44, is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) by lethal injection at the state’s death chamber in Huntsville.

King along with Shawn Berry and Lawrence Brewer were accused of kidnapping Byrd while he hitchhiked in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998.

Prosecutors said the men dragged him behind their 1982 gray Ford pickup truck for 3 miles (5 km) before dumping his body in front of an African-American church. A “KKK” engraved lighter was among the evidence police found at the scene, court documents showed.

The gruesome killing spurred the passing of the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, strengthening punishments for hate crimes in Texas. The murder, along with the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten and left to die tied to a fence, was also the genesis of the federal hate crimes prevention act passed in 2009.

King was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1999. He was a member of a white supremacist gang and spoke of starting a race war while in prison for a previous crime. He also talked about initiating new members by having them kidnap and murder black people, court documents showed.

“Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history,” King wrote in a letter to Brewer obtained by jail officials after they were convicted of killing Byrd, CNN reported.

“Death before dishonor. Sieg Heil!” the letter continued, using a Nazi salute.

King has always maintained his innocence, saying that he left the two other men before Byrd was killed. His lawyers filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after a Texas appeals court denied a request to halt the execution on Monday.

Berry and Brewer were also convicted of murder. Berry was sentenced to life in prison while Brewer, also a white supremacist, was sentenced to death.

Some of Byrd’s family members have said they would have rather seen the men spend the rest of their lives in prison.

“You can’t fight murder with murder,” his son Ross Byrd told Reuters the night before Brewer’s execution in 2011.

King would be the third inmate in Texas and the United States to be executed in 2019, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.</s>Texas To Execute Man Convicted In Dragging Death Of James Byrd Jr.

John King was convicted of the 1998 killing of James Byrd, Jr. It was one of the most gruesome hate crimes in U.S. history. Twenty-one years later, Jasper residents still struggle with what happened.</s>John William King was one of the masterminds behind the infamous murder of Mr Byrd in what is regarded as among the worst hate crimes seen in the US. King was executed via lethal injection on Wednesday following 21 years in prison for his horrific crime. The White Supremacist is the second person to be executed in relation to the death of Mr Byrd.

Speaking shortly after the death of her brother’s killer, Clara Byrd Taylor said: “There was no sense of relief. Such was the outrage of the case at the time that the Texas government passed the James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Act. Congress more recently enacted the Matthew Shepard and Jame Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. READ MORE: Manhunt underway after suspected CHAINSAW ATTACK on woman

The act was put in place in order to strengthen laws against crimes motivated by race, religion or any form of discrimination. One of the other men involved in the horrific attack, Lawrence Russell Brewer was sentenced to death in 2011. The third and final accomplice, Shawn Allen Berry was spared death and will serve a life sentence. Berry will be up for parole in 2038 according to US media report. READ MORE: Father cries as woman who murdered his pregnant girlfriend convicted
John William King is executed by lethal injection by the state of Texas, 21 years after the murder of James Byrd Jr., for which he was sentenced.