Lawrence Russell Brewer was one of three white men who murdered James Byrd Jr. in a notorious racist hate crime in Jasper, Texas, in 1998, and he was later executed by the state of Texas for that crime.

What he did

  • In June 1998, Brewer and two accomplices offered a ride to James Byrd Jr., a 49‑year‑old Black man, then beat him, chained him by the ankles to the back of a pickup truck, and dragged him for miles along a rural road outside Jasper, Texas.
  • The dragging caused catastrophic injuries; Byrd was killed and his body was dumped near a Black cemetery, a detail authorities and prosecutors described as part of the racist message of the crime.
  • Investigators tied Brewer to the killing with physical evidence, including Byrd’s blood on Brewer’s shoes and other forensic links to the truck and crime scene.

Motive and background

  • Brewer was a white supremacist who had been involved with racist prison gangs, and prosecutors argued that the murder was racially motivated and intended as a kind of “signal” or terror act.
  • The shocking brutality of the murder helped spur stronger hate‑crime legislation, including the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed in 2009.

Trial, sentence, and execution

  • Brewer was convicted of capital murder in 1999 and sentenced to death, while his accomplices John William King received a death sentence and Shawn Berry received life in prison.
  • On September 21, 2011, Brewer was executed by lethal injection in Texas; he reportedly showed no remorse in the years leading up to his execution.

“Last meal” incident and later discussion

  • Shortly before his execution, Brewer requested an extremely large and elaborate last meal but then refused to eat any of it, which angered state officials.
  • After that incident, Texas ended the practice of allowing condemned inmates to choose special last meals, a decision that is still discussed in forums and “today I learned” posts when people talk about what Lawrence Russell Brewer did beyond the original crime.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.