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John William King, 44, was one of three men convicted for the murder and, barring a stay, would be the second person to die for the crime that made news around the world and helped inspire Congress to pass federal hate crime legislation.
Byrd’s acquaintances told police they’d seen Byrd, who was black, at a party the night of June 6, 1998, that he’d left around 2 a.m. and was later seen riding in the bed of a pickup with three white men in the cab.
Authorities said King, Lawrence Russell Brewer and Shawn Berry picked up Byrd and drove him to a secluded area where they beat him and spray-painted his face before tying a logging chain around his ankles and dragging him behind a pickup truck for almost 3 miles.
King is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET) at Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville.
Some of Byrd’s relatives have objected to King’s death sentence.
While most murders are brutal, the viciousness of Byrd’s killing shocked the world. NBA star Dennis Rodman came forward to pay for Byrd’s funeral. Filmmakers produced multiple documentaries. Artists including Geto Boys, Drive-By Truckers and Will Smith referenced the violent saga in their songs. Maryland poet laureate Lucille Clifton penned an ode to Byrd.
King has long maintained his innocence, once sending a letter to the Dallas Morning News that would later be used against him. He has said that the evidence presented in his case was circumstantial and that Berry was solely responsible for Byrd’s death.
Though the motive was never specifically outlined, race was a theme in King’s trial. Prosecutors presented evidence that King had been an “exalted cyclops” of the white supremacist Confederate Knights of America and regularly drew lynching scenes.
King is expected to be the third prisoner executed in Texas this year, after cop killer Robert Mitchell Jennings and triple murderer Billie Wayne Coble.
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