morbidology: On 7 June, 1998, in Texas, an African American man by the name of James Byrd Jr. accep

morbidology:

On 7 June, 1998, in Texas, an African American man by the name of James Byrd Jr. accepted a ride from three white men - Lawrence Brewer, John King, and Shawn Berry. Instead of taking Byrd home, they inflicted unimaginable pain and suffering to the innocent man.

They took him to a secluded country road and beat him half to death - they broke 4 of his ribs, his jaw, his shin, his left orbital bone. They then knocked out the majority of his teeth and ruptured his testicles by hitting them with a wrench. They then removed his pants to cause the maximum damage and chained Byrd by the ankles and attached the other end to Berry’s car and drove three miles down the road. Byrd was fully conscious through this entire ordeal and managed to survive until his body swung out from behind the trunk while doing a sharp turn and his body struck a cement drainage culvert. This ripped off his head and right arm. The men then dumped his body outside a prominent African American cemetery. They were apprehended when authorities found the wrench in the middle of the road which was inscribed with Berry’s name. Not one of the men ever apologized for the brutal murder nor did they show an ounce of remorse or guilt.

Brewer was executed on 21 September, 2011. He was reported to say: “He was a godamn n**ger and I hope his family never recovers. As far as any regrets, no. I have no regrets. No, I’d do it all over again, to tell you the truth.” Brewer was asked by a prison psychiatrist: “Why did you do it?” to which he replied “Go fuck yourself. I’m not afraid to be murdered for doing what’s right. That son of a bitch was a fucking black bastard, and he’s burning the fuck in Hell right now. God is white.”

John King was executed on the 24th of April, 2019. He had repeatedly and unsuccessful tried to appeal his case at both the state level and federal level. John declined any counselling from a chaplain and selected no witnesses. Louvon, Clara and Tiffany were once again there to witness the execution. John was strapped to the gurney and kept his eyes closed. When asked if he had any last words, he uttered: “No.” The first dose of pentobarbital was administered at 6:56PM and John was pronounced dead 12 minutes later.

Berry was sentenced to life imprisonment.

We cover the case of James Byrd Jr. on episode 44 of Morbidology, which is available across all podcast platforms and on YouTube.