HUNTSVILLE, Texas — White supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed Wednesday evening for the dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas.
In 1998, Byrd, 49, was chained to the back of a pickup truck and pulled whiplike to his death along a bumpy asphalt road in one of the most grisly hate crime murders in recent Texas history.
Brewer, 44, was asked if he had any final words, to which he replied: “No. I have no final statement.”
He glanced at his parents watching through a nearby window, took several deep breaths and closed his eyes. He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. CDT, 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing into his arms, both covered with intricate black tattoos.
Byrd’s sisters also were among the witnesses in an adjacent room.
Appeals to the courts for Brewer were exhausted, and no last-day attempts to save his life were filed.
In addition to Brewer, John William King, now 36, also was convicted of capital murder and sent to death row for Byrd’s death. King’s conviction and death sentence remain under appeal. A third man, Shawn Berry, 36, received a life prison term.
