Man Convicted In Dragging Death Second White Supremacist Tried For Slaying Black Man In Texas

A second white supremacist was convicted Monday in the dragging death of a black man whose gruesome end shocked the nation.

Lawrence Russell Brewer, 32, could get the death penalty for murdering James Byrd Jr. in the town of Jasper last year.

The jury of 11 whites and one Hispanic took just four hours to reach a verdict. Standing with his lawyers, Brewer showed no reaction. The judge had admonished spectators against any show of emotion. There was none.

The jury returned immediately to begin hearing testimony on whether Brewer should be sentenced to life in prison or death.

Testimony in the punishment phase was set to continue today and Jasper County District Attorney Guy James Gray said he did not anticipate the case returning to the jury until Wednesday.

“Whatever they come up with we will accept that, of course,” Mary Verrett, Byrd’s sister, said after emerging from the courthouse. “I want to see the ultimate penalty … I can’t begin to describe how good we feel.”

Brewer’s former prison buddy John William King, 24, has been on death row since his February conviction in Byrd’s slaying. A third man, Shawn Allen Berry, also 24, is awaiting trial next month.

Prosecutors said they believe the three men killed Byrd to promote their fledgling white supremacist organization - the Confederate Knights of America - and initiate Berry into the group.

The slaying was one of the grisliest racial crimes since the civil rights era.

“I don’t like the death penalty but that’s what he deserves. The just punishment for this case and these facts and circumstances is death,” Gray said after the verdict was announced.

Unlike the first trial, the case against Brewer was moved out of Jasper, 150 miles away, after the defense argued that the people of Jasper would be inclined to convict to redeem their small town in the eyes of the nation.

Brewer, sometimes sobbing, testified last week that he was with King and Berry when Byrd, 49, was chained by the ankles to the bumper of Berry’s pickup and dragged for three miles along a rutted logging road and a bumpy asphalt route. According to Brewer, he climbed inside the truck cab, smoked a cigarette and didn’t realize Berry had chained Byrd to the back of the truck until they began driving. Brewer said he was convinced Byrd had died when Berry slashed his throat.

But a pathologist testified there was no evidence of a knife wound and no knife was found. Byrd was alive until his head was torn off when it slammed into a culvert, the pathologist said. DNA evidence showed Byrd’s blood on the shoes of all three men.