A white supremacist has been executed 21 years after he dragged a black man behind a truck for nearly three miles.
John William King and two other men had targeted hitch-hiker James Byrd Jr in the early hours of 7 June 1998 because of his skin colour, prosecutors had said.
Mr Byrd, 49, had been chained to the back of the truck and dragged three miles along a road near Jasper, Texas.
He is thought to have been alive for around two-thirds of that distance before his body was torn apart.
His remains were dumped in front of an African-American church.
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King, who had racist tattoos on his body including one of a black man being hung from a tree, is the fourth person executed in the US this year and the third in Texas.
He refused to look at witnesses before his death and also declined to make a statement to them. But in a statement released after his execution, he said: "Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment."
More from Texas
Twelve minutes after he was injected, he died.
Afterwards, Mr Byrd's sister Clara Taylor, who watched the execution, said it had been a "just punishment", adding: "I felt nothing – no sense of relief, no sense of happy this is over with".
Louvon Byrd Harris, another of Mr Byrd's sisters, said earlier this month that the execution would send a "message to the world that when you do something horrRead More – Source
A white supremacist has been executed 21 years after he dragged a black man behind a truck for nearly three miles.
John William King and two other men had targeted hitch-hiker James Byrd Jr in the early hours of 7 June 1998 because of his skin colour, prosecutors had said.
Mr Byrd, 49, had been chained to the back of the truck and dragged three miles along a road near Jasper, Texas.
He is thought to have been alive for around two-thirds of that distance before his body was torn apart.
His remains were dumped in front of an African-American church.
Advertisement
King, who had racist tattoos on his body including one of a black man being hung from a tree, is the fourth person executed in the US this year and the third in Texas.
He refused to look at witnesses before his death and also declined to make a statement to them. But in a statement released after his execution, he said: "Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment."
More from Texas
Twelve minutes after he was injected, he died.
Afterwards, Mr Byrd's sister Clara Taylor, who watched the execution, said it had been a "just punishment", adding: "I felt nothing – no sense of relief, no sense of happy this is over with".
Louvon Byrd Harris, another of Mr Byrd's sisters, said earlier this month that the execution would send a "message to the world that when you do something horrRead More – Source
