Dragging-Death Judge Jails TV Figure
A CBS-TV producer was ordered jailed Friday for failing to turn over to prosecutors a transcript of an interview by newscaster Dan Rather of a defendant in Jasper’s dragging death, but an appeals court said she could be released on bond.
The state Court of Criminal Appeals ordered state District Judge Joe Bob Golden to explain why he held a Dallas-based producer, Mary Mapes, in contempt. Mapes was ordered freed on condition that she post $2,000 bond.
In the meantime, an all-white jury was selected Friday for the trial of Shawn Allen Berry, 24, in the death of James Byrd Jr., 49. Byrd was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death last year in one of the nation’s grisliest racial crimes since the civil rights era.
John William King and Lawrence Russell Brewer have been convicted and sentenced to death for the murder.
In the interview with Rather, aired Sept. 28 on “60 Minutes II,” Berry said he watched in fear while the other two men killed Byrd.
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