Murder of James Byrd Jr.

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James Byrd Jr. (May 2, 1949 – June 7, 1998) was an African-American man who was murdered by three men, two of whom were avowed white supremacists, in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King dragged him for 3 miles (5 kilometers) behind a Ford pickup truck along a dirt road. 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. The murderers drove on for another 1+1⁄2 miles (2.5 kilometers) before dumping his torso in front of a Black cemetery. Brewer and King are among the few white men to be executed for killing a black person in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s. 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. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009. Brewer was executed by lethal injection...

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