This article posted yesterday discusses the 1998 hate-crime killing of James Byrd Jr. It was reported that John William King, one of the two men held responsible with a life sentences in prison, was executed. The Supreme Court had declined to issue a stay in the case and King was executed an hour later.
The prosecutors said that Byrd was killed after being dragged behind a truck for three miles in a town in East Texas. The article says that the case brought back a time of lynching and racially motivated killings throughout the South. Byrd’s family said that justice was being served and that he was a danger to society, agreeing with his death. This recent action brings to question to what point do we enact the death penalty to receive justice and prove a point. In addition, these killings have been going on for centuries and are sparked out of fear. The fear has not disappeared, but there has been less news coverage of these hate crimes and society’s understanding of these crimes have changed. It does not make it ok, but simply turns a blind eye. The resurrection of this case and the execution of King brings up several new questions about how our society will deal with race and racial violence in a modern era.
Whether John William King deserved to be killed for his actions or not, it is good to remind society that these issues still remain in our world today and have not been resolved. They are being discussed in new contexts and in new ways, but they allow our society to change. We still need to fight for an end so that these crimes do not happen again.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/25/james-byrd-jr-killer-john-william-king-executed-texas-hate-crime/?utm_term=.1eaca70e5315