John William King grinning at the camera after being sentenced to death in 1999 PAUL BUCK/Getty ImagesA 44-year-old white supremacist who committed one of the most horrific hate crimes in modern American history has been executed by the state of Texas. John William King and two other men killed a 49-year-old black man two decades ago in June 1998. They dragged James Byrd Jr behind a truck through the small town of Jasper before dumping his body in front of an African-American church in the small hours of the morning. James Byrd Jr was brutally beaten, then tied by the ankles to a pick-up truck and dragged along the road APKing was out drinking beer and driving around in a 1982 Ford pick-up truck with Lawrence Brewer and Shawn Berry when they picked up Byrd, who was hitchhiking, and drove him to a remote country road. They brutally beat him, then chained him by the ankles to the back of the…

Source: The Times April 25, 2019 08:03 UTC