Racist Gets Death in Texas Dragging Case

Smirking and cursing his victim’s family as he was led away, white supremacist John William King went to death row Thursday for chaining a black man to a pickup truck and dragging him to pieces.

Eleven white jurors and their elected black foreman took less than three hours to sentence King to death by injection rather than life in prison, taking about the same amount of time they needed to convict him Tuesday of murdering James Byrd Jr. in one of the grisliest racial crimes since the civil rights era.

King becomes the first white sent to death row in Texas for killing a black person since capital punishment resumed in the 1970s. Texas has executed only one white person for killing a black--in 1854.

Byrd’s relatives wiped their eyes after hearing the death sentence but declined Judge Joe Bob Golden’s offer to say something to King.

Byrd’s nephew, Darrell Verrett, held up his fingers in a victory sign and said, “Everything’s OK.” On the courthouse lawn, women high-fived each other and exclaimed, “Justice is served!”

“For once, I’m proud to be from Jasper. For once, justice has been served in Jasper,” said Ethel Parks, a black woman wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Byrd beneath the words, “Love, peace and harmony.”

Spectators taunted King, yelling “Bye! Bye, King!” as he was led from the courthouse.

When asked if he had anything to say to Byrd’s family, King said, “Yeah,” and muttered an obscenity.

Lawrence Brewer, 31, and Shawn Berry, 24, are awaiting trial in the crime.

Through his attorney, King released a statement saying: “Though I remain adamant about my innocence, it’s been obvious from the beginning that this community would get what they desire; so I’ll close with the words of Francis Yockey: ‘The promise of success is with the man who is determined to die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.’ ”

Yockey, who died in 1960, was an author of Nazi doctrine.