Posted on 07/03/2002 10:54:09 PM PDT by GOPcapitalist
When Ross Byrd left the Jasper County trial of the man who masterminded his father's 1998 dragging death, he told the press, "One down, two to go."
Minutes earlier, John W. "Bill" King became the first of two white men sentenced to death for the racially motivated murder of James Byrd Jr., a black man. A third man was sentenced to life in prison.
Throughout King's trial, Byrd told reporters he wanted his father's killers to receive the death penalty for the gruesome killing. His father was chained to the back of a pickup truck and dragged to his death.
King's execution date looms with his state appeals nearly exhausted, and Byrd is speaking out about the white supremacist's fate.
But this time, he is fighting to save the life of the very man who took that right from his father.
On Wednesday, Byrd traveled to the state prison in Huntsville to lead a 24-hour fast and prayer vigil on King's behalf. He was joined by dozens of supporters and anti-death penalty advocates that included Martin Luther King III, whose father was assassinated in 1968, longtime social activist Dick Gregory and former Houston Mayor Pro Tem Jew Don Boney.
"When I heard King had exhausted his appeals, I began thinking, `How can this help me or solve my pain?' and I realized it couldn't," Byrd said.
Jasper County District Attorney Guy James Gray said King has unsuccessfully used every state appeals option available.
Allen Richard Ellis, King's appeals attorney, said he will file a federal court appeal in mid-August. He said that appeal could be King's last chance unless the federal court allows him to open new appeals at the state level.
There is no hard and fast rule for setting an execution date after a final appeal is denied. Ellis said King still has enough appeal options left that discussing an execution date is premature.
King's lawyer said he learned about the prayer vigil Wednesday afternoon.
"It's a wonderful gesture," Ellis said. "I think it's a great example for all of us to live in a spirit of forgiveness instead of revenge."
Although Byrd initially supported the death penalty in King's case, he said his attitude began to change as the reality of his loss set in. Byrd said he now believes the death penalty is wrong in all cases and is hoping King's sentence will be commuted to life in prison without parole.
"To want to see the men who killed my daddy die by the state is the same for me to go out and kill them myself," Byrd said in a news conference before leaving for Huntsville.
The conference was held in the same community center where one of the state's largest grass-roots, anti-death penalty movements began two decades ago. Shape Community Center was a meeting point for advocates of former death row inmate Clarence Brandley, who was released from prison when his sentence was overturned in 1989.
Byrd attributed his change on King's sentence to religious conviction.
"It's the big picture we're trying to look at, and the big picture is God says, `Thou shall not kill,' " Byrd said.
Gregory stood beside Byrd wearing a sandwich board that bore the same Scriptural passage in bold letters. He said the message from Byrd and other activists gathered for the vigil was a simple belief that "any form of killing is wrong," even if performed by the state.
King, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said Byrd's stance on the execution of John King reflects the SCLC position that capital punishment violates basic human rights of all people.
"It's not a black or white issue," he said. "It's a right or wrong issue."
King invited children and volunteers gathered at Shape to join Byrd in praying for the convicted murderer during the vigil that runs through noon today.
Boney, who helped organize the vigil, said he did not know whether John King knew about Byrd's actions. He said no effort had been made to have the two men meet. Boney also said no one in the group had officially contacted Gov. Rick Perry to ask for clemency, but he is hopeful the prayer vigil would attract the governor's attention.
During the course of the campaign, Boney blasted councilman Sanchez for voting against a city council resolution calling on the state of Texas to pass a so-called hate crimes law designed to, among other things, impose harsher sentences on criminals who commit hate crimes.
Boney specifically cited the Byrd case as the rallying cry for his hate crimes law support and for his smear against Sanchez.
Brown's campaign also fueled the issue by recruiting Byrd's daughter to tape one of those ubiquitous campaign ads about how her father was killed by hate and how republicans support hate because they didn't want a hate crimes law (we got one anyway thanks to a RINO move by our governor Rick Perry). It was basically the same thing she did for the NAACP against Bush and will likely do again for other Democrat candidates as she continues her little charade of political prostitution to the DNC.
Here we are half a year later and guess what? The racial hypocrite Democrats who used the James Byrd murder as their top political rallying cry against George W. Bush, Orlando Sanchez, and who knows how many other republicans, now want the sentence of Byrd's killer WEAKENED...and all this after they got their little law, named after Byrd himself, to do the EXACT OPPOSITE by making "hate crimes" recieve harsher sentences!
I don't ever want a mind like theirs
But the issue is a matter of hypocrisy among the political left. After Byrd's murder, the Democrats (assisted by a few republicans including our governor) waged an all out war to pass the so-called "hate crimes" law in Texas using Byrd's murder as their rallying cry.
The law's purpose is simple - certain crimes against minority groups are classified as acts of hate, and as a result the sentencing gets bumped up to a higher level offense. The Dems also used this hate crimes law as a political demagoguery ploy that almost cost George W. Bush his election to the presidency.
They got their law in Texas during the 2001 legislative session, making sentences harsher for hate criminals.
But here we are a year later and lo and behold the EXACT SAME PEOPLE who campaigned to make sentencing harsher for hate crimes and did so on the rallying cry of Byrd's death want to reduce the sentence for Byrd's killer!
If you are opposed to capital punishment or not, it still reeks of hypocrisy and shows the entire hate crimes charade for what it truly was - a political ploy to smear Republicans as racists.
Since when is it about 'absolving pain'?
Deterrence and justice is the purpose of capital punishment.
Let it be done.
How morally corrupt it is to take the 'Thou shall not kill' commandant and use it as a tool now to not meet out the consequences of breaking that commandment
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