One of James Byrd’s Killers Facing Execution Wednesday
Ironically, even though the grisly murder that put Lawrence Russell Brewer on death row focused worldwide attention on east Texas, Brewer's scheduled execution Wednesday in Huntsville is drawing almost no attention in Texas or anywhere else.
Brewer, who is now 44, is to be put to death for his role in the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr., an African-American who was dragged two miles down a lonely Jasper County road in a crime that shocked and sickened the nation.
Brewer was one of two Byrd murder suspects sentenced to die. The other, John William King, remains on death row. A third, Shawn Allen Berry, was sentenced to life in prison in return for his testimony against Brewer and King.
On June 7, 1998, the three men grabbed Byrd, who was walking along a local road, beat him, then attached log chains to his ankles and dragged him about two miles behind a pickup. Byrd was decapitated when he struck a culvert.
The killers dumped Byrd's body at a Jasper County cemetery, then went to a barbecue. Brewer's DNA was found on a cigarette and beer bottle at the crime scene. Byrd's blood was found on his shoe.
The nation recoiled from the murder's savagery, and the killing led to passage of state and federal hate crimes legislation.
Law officers who recently visited Brewer on death row say he expressed no contrition or regrets for killing Byrd. He's exhausted all his appeals, and he's instructed his attorneys to file no appeals or clemency petitions in his behalf.
Why is Brewer's execution attracting so little attention? It might be the fact that September has been a busy month in the Texas death house, with four scheduled executions.
Death penalty opponents say they're using all their resources on other pending executions, and Brewer has just fallen off their radar. They say that's due in part to the fact that he's not a sympathetic figure.
They say not many people even remember who he is or what he did.
More From Newstalk 860
