While almost all of Byrd's ribs were fractured, his brain and skull were found intact, further suggesting that he maintained consciousness while he was being dragged. Byrd died about halfway along the route of his dragging, when his right arm and head were severed as his body hit a culvert. However, forensic evidence suggests that Byrd had been attempting to keep his head up while being dragged, and an autopsy suggested that Byrd was alive during much of the dragging. Brewer later claimed that Byrd's throat had been slashed by Berry before he was dragged. Instead of taking Byrd home, the three men took Byrd to a remote county road out of town, beat him severely, spray-painted his face, urinated and defecated on him, and chained him by his ankles to their pickup truck before dragging him for about three miles (five kilometers) on Huff Creek Road (County Road 278). Berry, who was driving, was acquainted with Byrd from around town. On June 7, 1998, Byrd, age 49, accepted a ride from Shawn Berry (age 23), Lawrence Brewer (age 31), and John King (age 23). He campaigned to spare the lives of those who murdered his father and appeared briefly in the documentary Deadline. ![]() Ross Byrd, the only son of James Byrd Jr., has been involved with "Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation", an organization that opposes capital punishment. ![]() was a cousin of Dennetta Lyles King who was Rodney King's first wife and mother to his daughter Lora King. After graduating from high school, he married and had three children: Renee, Ross, and Jamie. Byrd graduated from Jasper Rowe High School in 1967, the last segregated class. His mother was a Sunday School teacher and his father was a deacon at the Greater New Bethel Church. was born on May 2, 1949, in Jasper County, Texas, the third of nine children, to Stella Mae Sharp (1925–2010) and James Byrd Sr. Berry was sentenced to life imprisonment and will be eligible for parole in 2038. King was executed by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, on April 24, 2019. Brewer was executed by lethal injection for his part in the murder on September 21, 2011. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, commonly known as the Matthew Shepard Act, in 2009. In 2001, Byrd's lynching-by-dragging led the state of Texas to pass a hate crimes law, which later led the United States Congress to pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. īrewer and King were the first white men to be sentenced to death for killing a Black person in the history of modern Texas. The murderers drove on for another 1 + 1⁄ 2 miles (2.5 kilometers) before dumping his torso in front of a Black church. Byrd, who remained conscious for much of his ordeal, was killed about halfway through the dragging when his body hit the edge of a culvert, severing his right arm and head. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King dragged him for three miles (five kilometers) behind a Ford pickup truck along an asphalt road. ![]() (– June 7, 1998) was an African American man who was murdered by three white men, two of whom were avowed white supremacists, in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998.
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