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Texas Executes White Supremacist for 1998 Dragging Death of James Byrd
NY Times ^ | 04-24-2019 | Campbell Robertson

Posted on 04/24/2019 7:10:03 PM PDT by NRx

John William King, 44, convicted two decades ago for killing James Byrd Jr. in an act of unfathomable racist brutality in the small town of Jasper, was put to death by the State of Texas on Wednesday night with a dose of pentobarbital.

The execution, carried out at the state’s death chamber in Huntsville, came after the United States Supreme Court turned down Mr. King’s last petition for a stay. He was pronounced dead at 7:08 p.m., said Jeremy Desel, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Mr. King kept his eyes closed as witnesses arrived to the execution chamber on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported. When the prison warden, Bill Lewis, asked him if he had any final words, Mr. King said, “No.”

Mr. King made a final statement issued in writing, Mr. Desel said. “Capital Punishment: Them without the capital get the punishment,” it said.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


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KEYWORDS: jamesbyrd; localnews; texas
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To: All; NRx
The Left are upset he wasn't charged with a hate crime enhancement but upset he was put to death.

Took too long.

21 posted on 04/24/2019 7:26:35 PM PDT by newzjunkey (Fake news lies, credibility dies.)
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To: funfan

in an act of unfathomable racist brutality...

This was a HORRIBLE ACT and the guy needed to be dead.

But never think it would be worded this way if it was a black on white crime.


22 posted on 04/24/2019 7:27:02 PM PDT by dp0622 (The Left should know if.. Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR)
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To: Lurker

I’m talking about this life. He’s not wrong when he says that the rich just don’t seem to have to abide by the law like the rest of us.


23 posted on 04/24/2019 7:27:46 PM PDT by A_perfect_lady ( Political correctness forbids discussing any negative outcomes of Left-wing ideology. -PMcL)
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To: NRx

Some will recall that, at the time of his trial, there were protests because he wasn’t charged with a hate crime.


24 posted on 04/24/2019 7:30:40 PM PDT by stormhill
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To: NRx

If only they had hate crime legislation back then....they could have executed him even more.


25 posted on 04/24/2019 7:31:56 PM PDT by Phillyred
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To: Freedumb

*** Were all the lefty anti capital punishment protestors outside the prison as usual decrying the use of the this racist tool of oppression, as usual?

Yeah I didn’t think so. ***

There was a vigil..two vigils, actually. One by anti capital punishment protestors outside the prison.

The other, in Jasper, TX, by friends and family asking why it took so long to finally bring Justice in JamesBird’s death.

Our local news (San Antonio, TX) showed both.


26 posted on 04/24/2019 7:32:17 PM PDT by sockmonkey (I am an America First, not Israel First FReeper.)
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To: NRx

Nidal Malik Hasan is still kickin’?


27 posted on 04/24/2019 7:33:00 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: BigEdLB

There are laws against toxic waste


28 posted on 04/24/2019 7:34:03 PM PDT by stormhill
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To: dp0622

You are correct. The act itself is one of hate doesn’t matter what color your skin but the left only sees skin color or gender and the perps were white.

Hell the left celebrates black cop killers and gives them
awards and prestigious jobs.

I am so done.


29 posted on 04/24/2019 7:34:06 PM PDT by funfan
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To: A_perfect_lady

*** He’s not wrong, though. Think anyone will ever pay for the murder of Seth Rich? ***

I think Julian Assange is being punished for it. /s


30 posted on 04/24/2019 7:34:48 PM PDT by sockmonkey (I am an America First, not Israel First FReeper.)
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To: funfan

Everything you said is true.

The part about celebrating black cop killers is just beyond repulsive.

Those aren’t Americans. They’re traitors


31 posted on 04/24/2019 7:35:53 PM PDT by dp0622 (The Left should know if.. Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR)
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To: A_perfect_lady

In the US you get all the justice you can afford on the inverse curve.


32 posted on 04/24/2019 7:35:54 PM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: dp0622

Yep.


33 posted on 04/24/2019 7:38:15 PM PDT by funfan
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To: MIchaelTArchangel

Ditto That!


34 posted on 04/24/2019 7:43:01 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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Three perps

Lawrence Russell Brewer, 31, of Sulphur Springs was executed in 2011 for killing James Byrd Jr., and John William King, 23, of Jasper is expected to be put to death Wednesday. Shawn Allen Berry, 23, of Jasper was sentenced to life in prison.

35 posted on 04/24/2019 7:44:17 PM PDT by deport
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To: NRx

Prison Rape - It’s No Joke
By Pat Nolan

September 6, 2002

This article appeared in the Washington Post.

“The opposite of compassion is not hatred, it’s indifference.” These words were written by a prisoner who was severely beaten after refusing demands for sex from another inmate.

While often the subject of jokes on late-night TV, prison rape is no laughing matter. It has terrible consequences, not just for the inmates who are brutalized, but for our communities as well. The rate of HIV in prisons today is 10 times higher than in the general population. Every rape in prison can turn a sentence for a nonviolent crime into a death sentence.

Prison rape leads to other types of death, also. Rodney Hulin set a dumpster on fire in his neighborhood. Despite being only 16 years old, he was sentenced to eight years in an adult prison, where he was repeatedly beaten and raped. Despite his pleas for help, no one in authority intervened to help him. He was told to fend for himself. Depressed and unwilling to face the remainder of his sentence at the mercy of sexual predators, Rodney Hulin committed suicide. Similar suicides have occurred in jails and prisons across the United States.

Experts estimate that at least one in 10 inmates is raped in prison. Because 95 percent of prisoners will eventually be released back into our communities, the horrors that occur inside prison have consequences for the rest of us, too.

Some who suffer through brutal rapes become predators themselves, both in prison and after their release, subjecting other innocent victims to the same degradation that they experienced. Or they vent their rage in other acts of violence, often racially motivated. One example is the tragic story of James Byrd, the black man who was picked up by three white supremacists, beaten, chained to the back of their pickup truck and dragged for three miles to his death. One of his assailants was John William King, a burglar who had recently been released after serving a three-year sentence in one of Texas’ toughest prisons.

When King arrived at the prison, a group of white supremacists reportedly conspired with the guards to place King in the “black” section of the prison. At just 140 pounds, King was unable to defend himself against a group of black prisoners who repeatedly gang-raped him. This was exactly what the white power gang wanted. Filled with hatred, King was easily recruited into their group for protection. Over the remainder of his sentence, they filled King’s head full of hatred for blacks. When he was released, John King unleashed that pent-up hatred on James Byrd. The gang-rapes he endured in prison are no excuse for his murder of James Byrd, but they certainly help us understand what could lead him to hate so much.

As troubling as the incidence of rape is, equally disturbing is the attitude of many government officials who are indifferent to it. When asked about prison rape, Massachusetts Department of Correction spokesman Anthony Carnevales said, “Well, that’s prison . . . I don’t know what to tell you.” In that offhand remark, he was expressing what many feel in their hearts but are loath to admit—”they deserve it.”

But they don’t deserve it. Regardless of the crimes they have committed, no offender’s sentence includes being raped while in the custody of the government. By its very nature, imprisonment means a loss of control over the circumstances in which inmates live. They cannot choose their neighbors ( i.e., their cellmates), nor arm themselves, nor take other steps to protect themselves. Because the government has total control over where and how inmates live, it is the government’s responsibility to make sure they aren’t harmed while in custody.

Sens. Kennedy and Sessions and Reps. Wolf and Scott have teamed up to sponsor the “Prison Rape Reduction Act of 2002,” S. 2619 and H.R. 4943, which would establish standards for investigating and eliminating rape, and hold the states accountable if they fail to do so.

Winston Churchill said that the manner in which a society treats criminals “is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilization of any country.” As Congress rushes to complete its work before the election recess, it is important that they take the time to deal with the scandal of prison rape, and, in doing so, meet Churchill’s test of a civilized society.


36 posted on 04/24/2019 7:48:15 PM PDT by the_daug
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To: funfan

Bernie is just setting up to explain the Democrats proclivity to have the dead vote.


37 posted on 04/24/2019 7:49:37 PM PDT by taterjay
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To: A_perfect_lady

“He’s not wrong when he says that the rich just don’t seem to have to abide by the law like the rest of us.”

No arguing that these days.

L


38 posted on 04/24/2019 7:50:51 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: NRx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Byrd_Jr.


[King had several racist tattoos: a black man hanging from a tree, Nazi symbols, the words “Aryan Pride”, and the patch for a gang of white supremacist inmates known as the Confederate Knights of America.[19] In a jailhouse letter to Brewer that was intercepted by jail officials, King expressed pride in the crime and said that he realized while committing the murder that he might have to die. “Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history. Death before dishonor. Sieg Heil!” King wrote.[2] An officer investigating the case also testified that witnesses said that King had referenced The Turner Diaries after beating Byrd.[20]]

He seems to have changed his tune later and claimed to have left before the dragging. If so, it was really dumb to have boasted about it to his acquaintances, given that a good chunk of the evidence re the people who participated in the murder, in the absence of recorded video, was going to be based on a reconstruction involving what the suspects are alleged to have said to witnesses for the prosecution.


39 posted on 04/24/2019 7:52:33 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: the_daug

[Sens. Kennedy and Sessions and Reps. Wolf and Scott have teamed up to sponsor the “Prison Rape Reduction Act of 2002,” S. 2619 and H.R. 4943, which would establish standards for investigating and eliminating rape, and hold the states accountable if they fail to do so.]


I think if you threaten prison wardens with dismissal and full page newspaper ads naming them as punishments for the occurrence of prison rape, they’ll clamp down. Of course, the mandatory imposition of a year of solitary confinement and half-rations for prison rape offenders wouldn’t hurt.


40 posted on 04/24/2019 8:00:58 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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