Hate Crimes Prevention Act, commonly known as the Matthew Shepard Act, in 2009. In 2001, Byrd's lynching-by-dragging led the state of Texas to pass a hate crimes law, which later led the Congress to pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. īrewer and King were the first white men to be sentenced to death for killing a black person in the history of modern Texas. The murderers drove on for another 1 + 1⁄ 2 miles (2.5 kilometers) before dumping his torso in front of a black church.

Byrd, who remained conscious for much 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. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King dragged him for three miles (five kilometers) behind a pickup truck along an asphalt road. (– June 7, 1998) was an African-American man who was murdered by three white men, two of whom were avowed white supremacists, in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998.