Texas man executed for dragging death of black man
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS – A Texas man was executed today for the dragging death of a black man almost 18 years ago.
On June 7, 1998, during the nighttime hours, 23-year-old John William King and co-defendants, Lawrence Brewer and Shawn Allen Berry, murdered James Byrd Jr., a 49-year old black male, by dragging the victim behind their 1982 gray Ford pickup truck, located on Huff Creek Road, in Jasper, Texas. The subject and the co-defendants picked the victim up while he was hitchhiking in Jasper.
King was executed Thursday, April 25, 2019. Lethal injection consists of single drug protocol of Pentobarbital.
King offered no oral statement, but left a written statement, which read, “Capital Punishment: Them without the capital get the punishment.”

King, John William
Anonymous Report comment
April 27, 2019 at 8:20 am
The death penalty is justified!! Should have been carried years ago.
Anonymous Report comment
April 27, 2019 at 7:37 am
letting the state kill people seems alot more deranged than vigil ante justice. we gove the government to much control over people. privately owned prisons are scary. its sorta like giving a private citizen a cage full of victims and profit, its wrong.
Anonymous Report comment
April 27, 2019 at 7:32 am
well, nobody ever asks this question, was it random or did he know the guy and maybe had good personal reasons for dragging him to death, black males usually are guilty of one horrible thing or another, look at their incarceration rates and life expectancy, not good people at all.
Anonymous Report comment
April 27, 2019 at 7:30 am
quinn is a nazi scum bag that hates free speech.
Anonymous Report comment
April 26, 2019 at 7:33 pm
What happened to the other four posts?
Anonymous Report comment
April 26, 2019 at 7:12 pm
One guy is service a life sentence and the other gut was put down back in 2011.
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.
Anonymous Report comment
April 26, 2019 at 7:04 pm
what happened to the other 2 involved?
Anonymous Report comment
April 26, 2019 at 7:54 am
That is a terrible thing to say. No one deserves to die like that.
Anonymous Report comment
April 26, 2019 at 8:09 am
But the first poster is not a racist. He is just speaking his mind-or what little of it he has.
Anonymous Report comment
April 26, 2019 at 8:28 am
With a last name like King he must be related to our beloved congressman Stevie. They sure act alike.
Anonymous Report comment
April 26, 2019 at 4:02 pm
And you can tell by his comments, he really doesn’t have much!