Episode 723
Murder of James Byrd Jr.
Fri, 2019-Apr-26 01:40 UTC
Length - 2:23
Direct Link
Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a popular Wikipedia page every day.
With 230,618 views on Thursday, 25 April 2019 our article of the day is Murder of James Byrd Jr..
James Byrd Jr. (May 2, 1949 – June 7, 1998) was a African American man who was murdered by three white supremacists in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King dragged Byrd for three miles behind a pickup truck along an asphalt road.
Byrd, who remained conscious throughout most of his ordeal, was killed about halfway through the dragging when his body hit the edge of a culvert, severing his right arm and head. The murderers drove on for another 1 1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) before dumping his torso in front of a black cemetery in Jasper. Byrd's lynching-by-dragging gave impetus to passage of a Texas hate-crimes law. It later led to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, commonly known as the Matthew Shepard Act, which became federal law in 2009. The motive for the crime has been identified as racial hatred.
Brewer was executed by lethal injection for his involvement in this crime by the state of Texas on September 21, 2011. King was executed by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, on April 24, 2019. Berry was sentenced to life imprisonment and will be eligible for parole in 2038.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:40 UTC on Friday, 26 April 2019.
For the full current version of the article, see Murder of James Byrd Jr. on Wikipedia.
This podcast is produced by Abulsme Productions based on Wikipedia content and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Visit wikioftheday.com for our archives, sister podcasts, and swag. Please subscribe to never miss an episode. You can also follow @WotDpod on Twitter.
Abulsme Productions produces the current events podcast Curmudgeon's Corner as well. Check it out in your podcast player of choice.
This has been Raveena. Thank you for listening to popular Wiki of the Day.
|
|
Buy WotD Stuff!!
