Texas Dragging Death Trial
				Background Feb. 16. Update (Opening Statements) Feb. 17 Update Feb. 18 Update (Morning) Feb. 18 Update (Afternoon) Feb. 19 Update The Message Board Feb. 22 Update (Morning) Feb. 22 Update (Afternoon) Feb. 23 Update (Closing Arguments) Feb. 23 Update (The Verdict) Feb. 24 Update (The Penalty Phase) Penalty Phase Analysis Feb. 25 Update (The Sentencing) March 11 Update March 29 Update April 19 Update April 20 Update April 22 Update April 28 Update

JASPER, Texas (Court TV) —John William King, the reputed white supremacist convicted for the racially motivated gruesome slaying of James Byrd, Jr., has been sentenced to death by lethal injection.

With a sick elderly father's plea to spare his son and evidence of a lack of remorse for the gruesome slaying of a black man on their minds, jurors reached their decision after only approximately three hours of deliberations. The courtroom remained silent as Judge Joe Bob Golden read the jury's decision. King became the first white person condemned for killing a black person since Texas brought back capital punishment over 20 years ago.

The sentencing indicated jurors felt King would remain a threat to society if sentenced to life in prison, that he killed and intended to kill Byrd, and that there were no mitigating circumstances that should prevent him from receiving death. Byrd's relatives had a chance to address King in court after the sentence was announced but opted not to. But his sister, Clara Taylor, said that justice was served.

After the sentencing, King muttered an obscenity to reporters and released a statement through his attorneys.

"Though I remain adamant about my innocence, it's been obvious from the beginning that this community would get what they desire," King said. "So, I'll close with the words of [Nazi doctrine author] Francis Yockey: 'The promise of success is with the man who is determined to die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.'"

During closing arguments Thursday morning, prosecutors urged jurors to impose the death penalty because King would represent a threat to society even if he was given a life sentence.

"By giving Mr. King a life sentence, you're giving him at least 40 years to catch a black guard, a black nurse, a black doctor, a Jewish guard, a Jewish nurse, a Jewish doctor, or anybody else," said prosecutor Pat Hardy. "You're giving him a chance to catch anybody...who doesn't believe in his satanic racist views."

But defense attorneys insisted in their closings that King would not pose a threat if given a life sentence. They suggested that whether he lives or is executed, King must live with his crime.

"Your vote is not going to bring Mr. Byrd back," said King's attorney, Brack Jones. "I wish it could...Regardless of whether you vote life or death, John William King is a dead man walking."

Although defense attorneys argued Wednesday John William King should not die because prison turned him into the racist who murdered James Byrd, Jr., their efforts may have been thwarted by their own expert who admitted the white supremacist's lack of remorse makes him dangerous.

Clinical psychiatrist Walter Quijano testified that King's extreme racist views guarantee that he will be kept in isolation if sentenced to life in prison and therefore would not pose a threat in prison. Tracing King's hatred and violent actions to an assault that occurred when he was first imprisoned for burglary in 1992, he claimed prison radically changed the defendant.

However, on cross-examination, Quijano admitted that King has shown little remorse for murdering Byrd and conceded this makes him dangerous person. Quijano's testimony did little to help the defense's efforts to humanize King. Ronald King, the defendant's wheelchair-bound elderly father, pleaded with jurors to spare his son's life and told them that he never realized the extent of his hatred of blacks. The elder King insisted that his son was not a racist before his first prison term and insisted prison changed him.

King chose not to be in the courtroom when his father tearfully asked the jury to opt for a life sentence.

"Anything is better than losing him," the elder King said. "We've invested a lot of love in that boy. I'd hate to think we're going to lose him."

On his way out of the courthouse, Ronald King was hugged by Renee Mullins, Byrd's daughter. Prosecutors rested the penalty phase of their case after presenting several witnesses who suggested that the reputed white supremacist would remain a threat to society if sentenced to only life in prison.

On Tuesday, King was convicted of capital murder in the June 1998 beating and dragging death of Byrd. The penalty phase in which jurors will decide whether King will be executed began shortly after the verdict was announced Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning, prosecutors presented a prison official, Joe Sterling, who suggested King was still dangerous by claiming he threatened him during an incident approximately one month ago. King, Sterling said, refused to cooperate when guards wanted to take him to a court hearing.

Prosecutors also presented state psychiatrist Dr. Edward Gripon, who, based on his study of King's letters to newspapers, prison notes and the doctor's knowledge of the case, predicted that King will remain a threat to society. The psychiatrist, who has never interviewed King, admitted that it would be difficult to predict the defendant's actions but insisted that King's letters and racist body tattoos indicate that he may commit other violent acts.

Given the evidence that King planned the murder and kidnapping of a black man — and seemed to be a willing martyr to the white supremacist cause — the defense faced an uphill battle convincing jurors not to send King to his death. During the trial, jurors saw photos of King's racist tattoos of tattoos of Nazi SS symbols, satanic stars, the symbol of a white supremacist group, and the lynching of a black man. Prosecutors believed this "body of evidence" indicated King's racist ideology.

Particularly damning testimony came from William Hoover, a former fellow inmate who said that King talked about kidnapping and killing a black man and part of a white supremacist initiation rite. In addition, jurors learned about a prison letter King tried to send co-defendant Lawrence Brewer after the arrest in which he wrote, "Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history." This apparent lack of remorse did not help his chance and gaining sympathy with the jury and avoiding the death penalty.

King, along with his former roommates Lawrence Brewer and Shawn Berry, was accused of beating Byrd, stripping him, chaining him to a pickup truck and dragging him two-and-half miles until his head was severed. Prosecutors alleged that King led the attack on Byrd. Berry, the only defendant who gave police a statement, said that King wanted to "teach Byrd a lesson" and initiated the fatal attack. King told several local newspapers in various prison letters that he was not involved in Byrd's death and suggested that the murder was drug-related.

Berry and Brewer will be tried separately. Had King avoided the death penalty, he would have received a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole for 40 years. He is entitled to an automatic appeal before Texas' Supreme Court.

Court TV's Clara Tuma and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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