JASPER, Texas -- Shawn Allen Berry, whose family roots are three generations deep in Jasper, hopes a jury of his peers will be more sympathetic than they were to either of his co-defendants.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin today in Berry's murder trial. He is the third man charged with the slaying of James Byrd Jr., a local man who was dragged to his death behind a pickup truck.Jurors will be asked to choose which is the real Berry -- a hometown boy who was in the wrong place with the wrong people, or a thrill-seeking killer who got caught up in a frenzy of racist rage.
Berry's two co-defendants and roommates, John William King and Lawrence Russell Brewer, were convicted of Byrd's murder and sent to death row.
The three white men -- who have suspected ties to the Ku Klux Klan -- were accused of chaining Byrd, 49, to the bumper of Berry's pickup truck and dragging him over three miles of bumpy country road on June 7, 1998. Byrd's head, neck and right arm were shorn off.
Five hundred jurors were initially called up, and 150 to 200 were expected to appear in state District Judge Joe Bob Golden's court today. Attorneys must cull a panel of 14 from the group -- 12 jurors and two alternates.
"I don't know whether he is a good person at all, but I know he is better than those other two. He is not a racist like the others," said Betty Hamilton, a retiree who lives in Jasper.
That will make proving a racist motive difficult, prosecutors acknowledge.
"Motive in this case is either one of two things: he lived with these Klansmen and developed their way of thinking, or he's a thrill-seeker who got caught up in the killing like he was in a pack of dogs," Jasper County District Attorney Guy James Gray said.
Berry's co-defendants were easy to paint as racist killers. Both were ex-convicts and adorned with white-supremacist tattoos.
Berry's tattoos, including a Playboy bunny and a four-leaf clover, are less threatening and there are no racist screeds to show the jury. Gray said he is unconcerned.
"There will be less evidence on motive in this case. The crime scene facts, maybe a notch or two more on this one," Gray said. "It's actually easier to try this case. This guy admits he's at the crime scene."
There is DNA evidence showing Byrd's blood was on Berry's shoes, Gray said. Not only that, it was Berry's truck that dragged Byrd to his death, and the chain hooked to Byrd's ankles and the bumper was Berry's, he said.
Berry, in an interview with "60 Minutes II," said he was the one driving when he, King and Brewer stopped to pick up Byrd, who was staggering home drunk from a party. He said he was unable to stop King and Brewer as they beat Byrd.
Berry's attorney, Joseph C. "Lum" Hawthorn, has said that is the story Berry has told from the beginning. Hawthorn could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Gray said Berry's story has changed several times since he first began cooperating with investigators after his arrest. Berry gave several statements, none of which has ever been made public, and Gray said they differ from the story he told on television. He declined to elaborate.
If convicted of capital murder, Berry will either be sentenced to death or given 40 years in prison without chance of parole. Berry turned down an earlier plea bargain for a life sentence, Hawthorn has said.