Posted on 08/17/2017 4:29:25 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A man on death row for fatally dragging a black man behind a pickup truck will have his claim of innocence and poor legal representation reviewed by an appeals court 20 years after his conviction.
John William King, now 42, will have the claim reviewed by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the court said Tuesday.
King argued that his lawyers insufficiently presented a case for his innocence during his trial for the notorious death of 49-year-old James Byrd Jr.
King’s appeal said that the few pieces of circumstantial evidence tying him to the scene where a fight broke out between King, two other men, and Byrd, could be innocently explained.
The fight resulted in Byrd being chained at the ankles, tied to the bumper of a truck, and dragged to his death outside of Jasper, near Houston.
King’s appeals attorney, A. Richard Ellis, described the trial lawyers’ response to the evidence as “confusing and disjointed,” according to the court.
The incriminating evidence included a cigarette lighter bearing a Klan symbol and King’s prison name, “Possom.” King’s sandals, stained with Byrd’s blood, were also found at the scene of the crime.
Other evidence tying King to the crime included racist letters written by King and tattoos on King’s body that prosecutors said showed he hated blacks.
King’s attorney has 30 days to submit a brief on his claim. State attorneys will then have 15 days to respond.
The second person tied to the crime, Lawrence Russell Brewer, was executed in 2011. The third man, Shawn Berry, is serving life in prison.
Evidence presented in court showed that the trio offered Byrd a ride in June 7, 1998, and stopped along an isolated logging road. A fight broke out and Byrd was tied to the truck bumper with a logging chain and dragged for three miles.
His head was severed from his body and his remains were dumped nearby. Fingerprints taken from the headless torso identified the man as Byrd.
King, Brewer and Berry were quickly taken into custody.
No link to the original story?
See in post 3. I asked Moderator to add.
I thought George W Bush did this./s
Cause hes a white guy...
If they let him out of prison, I’m thinking one of the first things Mr. King will do is Test Ride a Ford F-150.
“Other evidence tying King to the crime included racist letters written by King and tattoos on King’s body that prosecutors said showed he hated blacks.”
Dwell on that for a bit.
Not saying he didn’t do it. Victim’s blood on his sandals is pretty damning. But BEING racist is not evidence of COMMITTING A CRIME.
Re #9:
But it gives motive.
Thanks Nick.
George W. Bush?!
Bush is getting his conviction reviewed?
Because I’m pretty sure Dubya dragged that guy, if you listen to the democRATS.
I don’t think it would prove he did, but it would help show he had the right mental state to do that.
Not a good time for a review of this particular case.
Uh, Jasper is 130+ miles NE of Houston. I guess typists in NY can't be bothered to look at a map.
I think the 1 guy serving life instead of getting the death penalty turned state’s witness against the other 2.
So there’s that too.
Are we positive that the guy he ‘dragged’ wasn’t trying to carjack him or something? I say this because a woman in my city was accused of dragging someone but a gas station camera proved he was trying to get her and tried hanging on to the car...
>>Because I’m pretty sure Dubya dragged that guy, if you listen to the democRATS.
That was what robocallers to black voters claimed in 2000. They said if Bush wins more men would be dragged to their deaths in chains.
And Slo Joe Biden told voters “they gon’ put y’all BACK in chains!”.
The reason he has hatred towards blacks is because he was raped repeatedly by black men when he was in prison.
Dwell on that for a minute.
Fun fact: a year after this crime, the same crime occurred, but with the races reversed. No one knows about that crime, and the killers of the innocent white man were not given the death penalty.
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