Death For White Supremacist
The second man on trial in the dragging death of a black man has been sentenced to die by lethal injection.
Lawrence Russell Brewer, 32, was given the death penalty for the June 7, 1998, murder of James Byrd Jr., who was chained to the bumper of a pickup truck and dragged for three miles along a bumpy country road northeast of Jasper, Texas.
"Your punishment was assessedÂ… and found by the jury as death," State District Judge Monte Lawliss told Brewer Thursday.
The Brazos County jury deliberated just over 11 hours Wednesday and three hours Thursday before announcing Brewer's punishment. He could have received a life term for the killing.
Relatives of the victim said the case was just. "It was a fair case. It was a just sentence and we are very elated about the outcome," said Mary Verrett, Byrd's sister.
Another white supremacist, John William King, was convicted in the murder last February and now sits on death row. A third man, 24-year old Shawn Allen Berry, goes on trial next month.
In an interview on CBS News' 60 Minutes II, Berry recalled the last moments of James Byrd's Jr.'s life.
"In thinking about that night, what stands out in your mind? What image, what mental picture, reoccurs more than any other to you?" CBS News Anchor Dan Rather asked Berry.
"The main thing I seeÂ… It's when he kicked him the last time. Russell Brewer kicked him the last time. He didn't move. I mean, I remember everything else, but I see that like it happened yesterday," Berry said.
The prosecution contended Brewer was the racist leader who taught Berry and King their views and in a jailhouse note last year boasted: "I do believe we are bigger stars, or should I say hero of the day, than we ever expected."
The jury needed only four hours to return Brewer's guilty verdict earlier in the week, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob McNamara.
About an hour into their second day of talks, jurors asked to see photos of Brewer's tattoos, which include a burning cross, SS lightning bolts and Ku Klux Klan symbols. They also wanted a photo of Brewer with his family.
In deciding the penalty, the jury had to answer three questions: whether Brewer intended to kill Byrd, whether he is a future danger to society and whether any mitigating circumstances about him should be considered.
Their answers were "yes" to the first two questions and "no" to the third, condemning Brewer to death by lethal injection. The judge pronounced the sentence as Brewer's mother, seated behind her son in the courtroom, dabbed her eye with a tissue.
In his closing argument Wednesday, Jasper County District Attorney Guy James Gray said the facts of the slaying showed Brewer is a continuing danger and should be condemned. "The degree of pain they were willing to inflict on this man is an indication of the degree of racial commitment," Gray said.
A defense attorney argued that Brewer a convicted burglar, had no history of violence in prison and should instead get a life term.
Byrd, a former Jasper vacuum cleaner salesman, was abducted and taken to a remote area northeast of Jasper.
He was harnessed with a 24-foot logging chain by his ankles to the bumper of a pickup truck and viciously dragged for three miles. He was decapitated midway through the tortuous ride when his head slammed into a culvert.
His shredded torso, minus a head, neck and arm, was dumped between a black church and cemetery where it was found a few hours after daylight. The circumstances of the hate crime spawned a national outrage.