Image Source: Texas Department of Criminal Justice
What Was the Accusation?
John William King was convicted of capital murder for his role in the June 7, 1998 killing of James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old Black man in Jasper, Texas. Prosecutors said King, Lawrence Russell Brewer, and Shawn Allen Berry picked Byrd up while he was walking, drove him to an isolated road, assaulted him, chained him by the ankles to the back of Berry’s pickup truck, and dragged him for nearly three miles. Byrd was alive for much of the dragging before his body was dismembered. The killing became one of the most notorious racist murders in modern American history and later helped spur state and federal hate-crime legislation bearing Byrd’s name.
Evidence presented at King’s trial included racist writings and tattoos, physical evidence connecting him to the crime scene, and correspondence he wrote while jailed. Prosecutors portrayed King as deeply involved in white-supremacist ideology and argued that Byrd was targeted because he was Black. A Jasper County jury convicted King of capital murder in February 1999 and sentenced him to death.
King nevertheless maintained that he had not participated in Byrd’s murder. In a letter to The Dallas Morning News written while awaiting trial, he offered his own account of the night and asserted that Berry had dropped King and Brewer at their apartment before leaving with Byrd. King suggested that Berry alone later killed Byrd after a drug transaction involving steroids went wrong. Courts reviewing the case noted that this account conflicted with physical evidence and with other statements in the record, but King continued to insist that his lawyers had failed to present the innocence defense he wanted.
After years of appeals, King was executed by lethal injection on April 24, 2019. He spoke no final words in the death chamber. His written final statement did not apologize to Byrd’s family or accept responsibility for the murder; instead, it criticized capital punishment. King’s image-repair response therefore centered primarily on denial, shifting responsibility to Berry, and challenging the legitimacy of the punishment imposed on him rather than on mortification or remorse.
Key Apologia Strategies
Denial, Shifting Responsibility, Attacking the Accuser
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Transcript
Excerpt from John William King’s letter to The Dallas Morning News, written while awaiting trial:
“Several statements and the theories against Shawn Berry, Russell Brewer and myself, John W. King, for a prospective motive in this hard crime have been presented to the public. Against the wishes of my attorney, I shall share with you objective facts and my account of what happened during the early morning hours of June 7th, 1998.”
“As for the clothes they took from the apt. I do know that one pair of shoes they took were Shawn’s dress boots with blood on them, as well as pants with blood on them. As far as the clothes I had on, I don’t think any blood was on my pants or sweat shirt, but I think my sandals may have had some dark brown substance on the bottom of them.”
“Seriously, though, Bro, regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history and shall die proudly remembered if need be. . . . Much Aryan love, respect, and honor, my brother in arms. . . . Possum.”
In the account that followed, King stated that he and Brewer had been riding with Berry earlier that night and maintained that Berry later dropped them at their apartment before leaving with Byrd. King’s complete letter was introduced in part at trial; the federal court record reproduces excerpts rather than a complete publicly available transcript.
John William King’s written final statement before his April 24, 2019 execution:
“Capital Punishment: Them without the capital get the punishment.”
Letter written by Ronald King, the father of John William King:
”It hurts me deeply to know that a boy I raised and considered to be the most loved boy I knew could find it in himself to take a life.”
Lozano, J. A., & Graczyk, M. (2019, April 25). Texas executes avowed racist in black man’s dragging death. Associated Press. https://www.ksl.com/article/46538086
