BRYAN, Texas--White supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer was condemned on Thursday to die for a brutal race murder in Texas, the dragging death of a black man.
A 12-member jury that included no blacks decided Brewer's fate after more than 14 hours of deliberations over two days.Under Texas law, the jury had only two sentencing options--life in prison or death by lethal injection--after finding Brewer guilty on Monday of capital murder in the June 7, 1998, dragging death of James Byrd near Jasper, Texas.
Brewer was the second of three defendants handed the death sentence in the case, which sparked a national outcry because of its brutality and similarities to Old South racist lynchings.
Brewer, 32, pursed his lips when state District Judge Monte Lawlis pronounced the sentence but remained composed. Members of his family sitting in the courtroom wept quietly.
The jury's verdict came shortly after they sent out a note saying they were deadlocked but were ordered by Lawlis to continue deliberations.
Brewer's jailhouse buddy John William King, 24, was condemned to die by a Jasper jury in February, while Shawn Berry, also 24, is scheduled for trial next month.
Prosecutors say the trio kidnapped Byrd, 49, chained him to a pickup truck and dragged him three miles along a country road. The killing was an attempt to attract attention to a nascent hate group, prosecutors said. Brewer's trial was moved 135 miles west from Jasper to Bryan at his attorney's request. Berry is scheduled for trial in Jasper next month. Brewer denied participating in the murder and blamed it on Berry, who he said slashed Byrd's throat and chained him to his truck in a drug deal gone bad.