Blood Tied to Man in Dragging Trial

The blood of a black man dragged to death behind a pickup truck was found on the clothing of Shawn Allen Berry, the last of three white men to be tried in Jasper, Texas, for the crime, an FBI expert on DNA testified. Sam Baechtel said his findings show that Berry had James Byrd Jr.’s blood on his shirt, jeans and boots the night of the killing. The prosecution rested its case after less than three days of testimony. Berry, 24, could face the death sentence if convicted of the murder of Byrd, who was chained by his ankles to Berry’s truck and dragged three miles along a country road in June 1998. Prosecutors said the attack was racially motivated. In other testimony, forensic pathologist Tommy Brown, who conducted Byrd’s autopsy, said it appeared that the 49-year-old man was alive and writhing in pain during the dragging and did not die until he slammed into a culvert.