Convicted Killer of Jasper Dragging Crime Executed

A convicted white supremacist gang member of the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas, was executed Wednesday evening

Lawrence Russell Brewer was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m., just 10 minutes after the final injection of the lethal drugs into both his black tattooed covered arms.
In 1998, Byrd, 49, was chained to the back of a pickup truck and dragged to his death along a bumpy asphalt road in Jasper, Texas.  The crime has been deemed as one of the most grisly hate crime murders in recent Texas history.

When asked if he had any final words, Brewer, 44, replied: "No. I have no final statement."

Two of Byrd's sisters and Brewer's parents were in attendance.

Appeals to the courts for Brewer had been 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.   King's conviction and death sentence remain under appeal. A third man, Shawn Berry, 36, received a life prison term.

~YBW Staff