Texas has exe­cut­ed John William King (pic­tured), one of three men con­vict­ed of the bru­tal lynch­ing of James Byrd, Jr., after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to inter­vene in his case. King’s lawyers had asked the Court to grant a stay of his sched­uled April 24, 2019 exe­cu­tion after a divid­ed Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vot­ed 5 – 4 on April 22 to per­mit the exe­cu­tion to pro­ceed. King, an avowed white suprema­cist, had main­tained since the time of his arrest that he was not present at the time of Byrd’s mur­der and did not par­tic­i­pate in the killing, and he had repeat­ed­ly but unsuc­cess­ful­ly demand­ed that his lawyers present an inno­cence defense at tri­al. King’s appeal lawyers had asked the Texas appeals court and the Supreme Court to halt his exe­cu­tion to review King’s claim that his lawyers’ actions denied King the assis­tance of coun­sel guar­an­teed by the Sixth Amendment.

King says he left Byrd and his co-defen­dants, Lawrence Russell Brewer and Shawn Berry, pri­or to Byrd’s mur­der. When King’s tri­al lawyers decid­ed to con­cede his guilt, he tried to replace them. He wrote let­ters to the court and to a Dallas news­pa­per describ­ing his inno­cence claims and com­plain­ing that his attor­neys would not present them. King’s appel­late attor­neys argued that his tri­al lawyers’ con­ces­sion of guilt vio­lat­ed the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 rul­ing in McCoy v. Louisiana, which said, ​“With indi­vid­ual lib­er­ty — and, in cap­i­tal cas­es, life — at stake, it is the defendant’s pre­rog­a­tive, not counsel’s, to decide on the objec­tive of his defense: to admit guilt in the hope of gain­ing mer­cy at the sen­tenc­ing stage, or to main­tain his inno­cence, leav­ing it to the State to prove his guilt beyond a rea­son­able doubt.” The Texas appeals court dis­missed King’s appli­ca­tion for review with­out address­ing the mer­its of his claim.

Judge Michael Keasler, joined by three oth­er judges, dis­sent­ed, cit­ing ​“sub­stan­tial” unre­solved fac­tu­al and legal ques­tions. Judge Keasler wrote: ​“A death-sen­tenced man who has assert­ed his inno­cence since his cap­i­tal-mur­der tri­al has asked us to review his claim that his tri­al lawyer over­rode his express wish­es to pur­sue a defense con­sis­tent with his inno­cence. In light of … the hor­ri­ble stain this Court’s rep­u­ta­tion would suf­fer if King’s claims of inno­cence are one day vin­di­cat­ed (or, per­haps, if the Supreme Court even­tu­al­ly decides that McCoy should apply retroac­tive­ly), I think we ought to take our time and decide this issue unhur­ried­ly. I would grant the stay.” The U.S. Supreme Court denied King’s stay appli­ca­tion without comment.

Ahead of King’s exe­cu­tion date, the Beaumont Enterprise inter­viewed com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers in Jasper, Texas to under­stand how King, who grew up in the same small town as Byrd, came to be asso­ci­at­ed with one of the nation’s most noto­ri­ous hate crimes. Capt. James Carter, a black man who worked for the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office for 30 years, has known King since he was a child. ​“My boys liked him,” Carter said. ​“He came and spent the night with us often. I treat­ed him like my own.” When Byrd was killed, Carter and his boss had to tell Byrd’s fam­i­ly. Ronald King, John William King’s father, strug­gled to under­stand how his son became a white suprema­cist, and linked the change to time his son spent in prison for a series of bur­glar­ies he com­mit­ted at age 20. ​“Something hap­pened to my boy in prison. Something bad,” Ronald King had told his priest, Rev. Ron Foshage. ​“He nev­er had this kind of hate in his heart.” While in prison, the Reverend said, King had been sex­u­al­ly assault­ed by an African-American prisoner.

Byrd’s fam­i­ly did not blame King’s fam­i­ly for the mur­der, and showed kind­ness to Ronald dur­ing the tri­al. According to Foshage, ​“Every day after the tri­al had end­ed for the day, Mr. Byrd and oth­er mem­bers of the Byrd fam­i­ly would touch Ronald on the arm as they were leav­ing. He was so grate­ful for their kind­ness.” ​“We as par­ents raise our chil­dren to do the right thing and not hate,” said Louvon Harris, James Byrd Jr.’s old­er sis­ter. ​“But once they’re not in your con­trol any­more, we’re not sure what kids will grow up to be. …There were no win­ners in this. We felt their pain, as well.” Shortly before the tri­al, Jasper res­i­dents gath­ered to tear down a fence sep­a­rat­ing racial­ly seg­re­gat­ed sec­tions of the town ceme­tery. According to the Enterprise, if King chose to have his body returned to Jasper after the exe­cu­tion, ​“he’ll be buried next to his par­ents and just 100 yards from James Byrd Jr.”

(Monique Batson, King’s fate rests with Supreme Court, Beaumont Enterprise, April 24, 2019; Jolie McCullough, Texas exe­cu­tion set for John William King in racist drag­ging death of James Byrd Jr., The Texas Tribune, April 24, 2019; Monique Batson and Andrea Whitney, Clues, but no firm answers in King’s path to infamy, Beaumont Enterprise, April 23, 2019.) Read the court rul­ings in King’s appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the plead­ings filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. See U.S. Supreme Court, Executions, and Representation. [Story updat­ed to reflect that the U.S. Supreme Court denied King’s appli­ca­tion for a stay and that Texas car­ried out the exe­cu­tion as scheduled.]

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