John William King to Be Executed Wednesday for 1998 Lynching In Jasper

Style Magazine Newswire | 4/26/2019, 2:10 p.m.
John William King is scheduled for execution Apr. 24 in Huntsville. He’s convicted of a murder that many have called …
John Williams and James Byrd Jr

HoustonPublicMedia.Org

John William King is scheduled for execution Apr. 24 in Huntsville. He’s convicted of a murder that many have called a modern-day lynching. In the early hours of June 7, 1998, King, along with co-conspirators Lawrence Brewer and Shawn Berry, picked up James Byrd, Jr. while he was walking home in Jasper. The trio chained Byrd behind Berry’s 1982 pickup and dragged him three miles down a county road, dismembering and killing him. They dumped much of his body in front of an African-American church for parishioners to find on their way to Sunday services. The crime inflamed racial tensions in east Texas. The Ku Klux Klan and Black Panthers came to town soon afterward. Byrd’s death reverberated across the country. Texas passed the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act in 2001, and a federal statute bearing his name passed in 2009.

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