Race Eyed In Texas Assault (mentally handicapped black man)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/09/national/main577331.shtml

Two men were arrested and warrants were issued for two others in the beating of a mentally handicapped black man who was left unconscious on a east Texas roadside.

All four suspects are white and the FBI is investigating whether the attack was a federal hate crime.

John W. Owens, 19, and James C. Hicks, 24, were jailed on a complaint of aggravated assault, said police Chief Alton McWaters. The names of their attorneys were not immediately available.

Billy Ray Johnson was severely beaten after drinking with several men in a pasture at the Owens family farm, then dumped about two miles away. Owens' father was out of town at the time, McWaters said. Johnson, 42, was found along a small road, lying on a fire ant mound in isolated woods dense with oak and sweetgum trees.

[roguevalley]

1. This is unbelievably contemptable.

I hope they get thirty years to think about this in prison.

[cam75219]

2. They'll get the needle....

It is Texas after all.

[MountainLaurel]

3. Think again

Do you know how absolutely rare it is for whites to get the death penalty for killing people of color? In a lot of places, it just doesn't.