Reply #12: "East Texas" and "Racist" are almost synonymous: James Byrd, case in point.

[DemoTex]

3 whites indicted in dragging death of black man in Texas

July 6, 1998
Web posted at: 11:07 p.m. EDT (0307 GMT)
Trial not likely until 1999
JASPER, Texas (CNN) -- Three white men were indicted Monday on capital murder charges in the death of a black man who was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death on a rural East Texas road in early June.

One indictment issued by a Jasper County grand jury accuses John William King, 23, of Jasper and Lawrence Russell Brewer, 31, of Sulphur Springs of capital murder. A second indictment by the grand jury names Shawn Allen Berry, 23, of Jasper.

King and Brewer are expected to be tried together, but officials said that Berry's charge may be reduced in a plea agreement. Berry has been a key witness in the investigation.

If convicted, the men could face the death penalty in the June 7 slaying of James Byrd Jr.