Wednesday, February 24,1999
Supremacist convicted in slaying
■ John William King
may get the death penalty
for the 1998 dragging
murder of James Byrd Jr.
JASPER, Texas (AP) - A white
supremacist was convicted of mur
der Tuesday and could get the death
penalty for chaining a black man to a
pickup truck and dragging him until
his body was torn to pieces in a
crime that shocked the nation with
its savagery. I
The jury of 11 whites and one
black took less than 214 hours to
reach a verdict against John William
King in the slaying last June of
James Byrd Jr. Courtroom specta
tors applauded and the victim’s rela
tives broke into tears.
The jury then began hearing evi
dence on whether the 24-year-old
laborer should get the death penalty
or life in prison for one of the grisli
est racial crimes in the United States
since the civil rights era.
“I am relieved,” said Stella
Brumley, Byrd’s sister. “That’s all
we wanted, was justice.”
His son, Ross Byrd, said: “All I
know is that there’s one down and
two to go.”
King was the first of three white
men to go on trial in the slaying,
which prosecutors said he carried
out because he wanted “something
dramatic” to gain credibility for a
racist group he was organizing.
King leaned forward when the
verdict was read, shielding himself
from cameras, then sat back in his
chair with his fingers on his chin.
One of his lawyers said King
was not surprised by the verdict and
considered himself the victim of a
conspiracy.
Byrd’s head and arm were found
torn off after he was pulled nearly
three miles while tied by his ankles
with a 24*/2-foot logging chain.
“Three robed riders coming
straight out of hell - that’s exactly
what there was that night,” prosecu
tor Pat Hardy said in closing argu
ments Tuesday.
The evidence against King
included a lighter engraved with a
Klan symbol and King’s prison
name, “Possum,” that was found
along with cigarette butts at the
scene; clothes stained with Byrd’s
blood; letters in which King wrote
66
Three robed riders coming
straight out of hell -
thats exactly what
there was that night."
Pat Hardy
prosecutor
about organizing a racist gang; and
King’s tattoos of a black man hang
ing from a tree, cartoon characters in
Klan garb, Nazi-type SS lightning
bolts and Aryan power proclama
tions.
According to testimony, King
talked with a fellow inmate a few
years ago about “taking a black out”
to prove himself as a white suprema
cist. After his release in 1997, King
tried to start a racist group, the Texas
Rebel Soldiers, and was looking for
an opportunity to make a name for
himself, prosecutors said.
King’s lawyers called only three
witnesses who testified for less than
an hour. King did not take the stand.
His attorneys appeared to have
conceded the conviction and
planned to try to save his life in the
punishment phase.
They insisted that the racist writ
ings did not prove the case against
King and that the convicted burglar
covered himself in racist tattoos as
protection from blacks in prison.
“I don’t deny he made some
racial slurs,” attorney Haden
“Sonny” Cribbs said. “Not that I
agree with that. But that is his right.”
King’s alleged accomplices,
Shawn Berry, 24 and Lawrence
Russell Brewer, 31, are awaiting
trial and could also face the death
penalty.
I—
Turkish government
formally arrests Ocalan
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - At a
secret hearing on a forbidding prison
island, Turkey formally arrested the
foremost Kurdish rebel leader on trea
son charges Tuesday, paving the way
for trial by a security tribunal.
. Prosecutors said they would seek the
death penalty.
Abdullah Ocalan’s Turkish attor
ney was barred from the hearing or
conferring with his client, who has
been under interrogation for a week
without seeing a lawyer.
Ocalan, 49, leads the Kurdistan
Workers Party or PKK, a rebel army
that has fought for Kurdish autonomy
in Turkey^ impoverished southeast
The conflict has claimed an esti
mated 37,000 lives, with the toll
growing daily. On Tuesday, the gov
ernment reported the deaths of 14
rebels in clashes with Turkish troops
in he mountains.
Tuesday’s hearing was closed to
the press and public. Its outcome was
reported by he semi-official Anatolia
news agency, which cited statements
from the judge and prosecutors.
Turkey has insisted that Ocalan’s
trial in a security court with military
judges will be fair. It has also warned
against any outside interference,
repeating Tuesday that foreign moni
tors will not be allowed to attend.
Ocalan’s lawyer, Osman
Baydemir, said he complained to the
Justice Ministry about being kept
from his client and said he was wor
ried that the rebel leader may have
been subject to “wrongful interroga
tion procedures.”
In Strasbourg, France, the
European Court of Human Rights
said it was seeking a “speedy
response” from Turkey to its queries
about Ocalan’s access to lawyers.
Russell Johnston of Britain, the
head of the Council of Europe’s par
liamentary assembly, canceled a visit
to Ankara to check on preparations for
the trial. He said Turkey told him he
was not welcome.
vfnnnfrino QuaaUona? Comments?
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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Serbs settle with
ethnic Albanians
More talks to be held in March
RAMBOUILLET, France (AP)
- Serbs agreed in principle Tuesday
to give limited self-rule to majority
ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, but the
two sides failed after 17 days of
intense negotiations to conclude a
deal for ending their yearlong con
flict. More talks were scheduled for
March.
The partial settlement puts on
hold, at least temporarily, NATO’s
threats to bomb Serb targets if they
don’t adopt the complex plan that
would force them to withdraw
troops from Kosovo and accept
NATO peacekeepers.
After four days of strenuous
personal diplomacy, shuttling
between the two sides, Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright accepted
less than she had insisted on.
There was no provision for
deploying NATO peacekeepers in
the tense province to enforce the
settlement, and the Serbs refused to
give their consent to major ele
ments of the self-rule sought by the
ethnic Albanians.
According to senior U.S. offi
cials, the Sobs still insist on Serbian
courts tor Serbs accused ot crimes,
refuse to permit the ethnic Albanians
to have a president and are unwilling
to cooperate with a war crimes tri
bunal looking into atrocities against
civilians committed during the war
that has claimed some 2,000 lives.
“But we have broken the stale
mate that hung over Kosovo for so
long,” Albright said.
The Albanians also hedged. They
were given two weeks for “consulta
tions” with people in the province
and still are insisting on a referendum
to vote for independence and seces
sion from Serbia at the end of the
three-year autonomy trial period
envisioned by the accord formulated
by the United States, Britain, France,
Italy, Germany and Russia.
66
... We have
broken the
stalemate that
hung over Kosovo
for so long”
Madeleine Albright
U.S. secretary of state
The settlement also calls for a
restoration of die cease-fire that was
arranged by U.S. envoy Richard
Holbrooke last October and for the
staged removal of Serbian troops and
special police units -but only after a
NATO force is deployed to enforce
the agreement
In order to put a halt to the pro
tracted negotiations, which ran
through two deadlines, the ethnic
Albanians and Serbs agreed to anoth
er round of talks in France, beginning
March 15.
“We have done a lot here even if
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British Foreign Secretary Robin
Cook, who co-chaired the talks with
French Foreign Minister Hubert
Vedrine. “We will use the next three
weeks to convince the Serbs and to
convince the Albanians that the
agreement is a good bargain for both
sides.”
Meanwhile, the violence contin
ued.
In Pristina, Yugoslavia, five Serb
policemen were wounded when sus
pected rebels opened fire on Serb
mourners, who gathered under
police escort at the home of Mirko
Milosevic, a civilian killed Monday
allegedly by the rebel Kosovo
Liberation Army.
- .—“ ™ ■ --
III
1
N_t ___ _ I 1
■ Lebanon
Lebanese, Israelis square off;
guerrillas ambush squad
BEIRUT (AP) - Lebanese guerrillas
ambushed an elite Israeli commando
squad Tuesday, killing its commander and
two officers and wounding five soldiers in
a painful blow to Israeli forces in southern
Lebanon.
The troops were moving north of the
Israeli-occupied zone when they ran into
Hezbollah guerrillas.
■ Washington, D.C.
U.S. fighters drop bombs
on Iraqi command center
The Associated Press - Two U.S. F-15
fighters each dropped a 2,000-pound
bomb on a military command and control
installation in Iraq Tuesday after planes
patrolling the northern no-fly zone came
under anti-aircraft fire, Pentagon officials
Army Col. Richard Bridges added
that in a separate incident, an unknown
number of F-15s dropped 500-pound
bombs on a multiple-launch rocket site
used as an air defense facility. Both inci
dents occurred near Mosul, Iraq.
■ Washington, D.C.
Greenspan predicts economy
will continue to flourish
The Associated Press - Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said
Tuesday a “surprisingly robust” U.S.
economy should continue growing this
year but at a much slower pace than last
And he dropped hints that if the slowdown
doesn’t occur, die central bank is prepared
to increase interest rates to make it hap
pen.
Delivering his twice-a-year report on
Fed policy to Congress, Greenspan did
not signal that a rate hike is imminent
■ United Kingdom
Blair says Britain
should prepare for euro
LONDON (AP) - Prime Minister
Tony Blair on Tuesday set the government
to work on preparing to join the euro, a
step bound to face opposition in Britain.
Blair said the government’s policy
was still to wait and see how the new
European currency worked before mak
ing a decision to adopt it He said prepara
tions must begin to provide a valid choice.
■ United Nations
U.N. report: Marijuana uses
should be studied scientifically
The Associated Press - In-depth and
impartial scientific studies should be con
ducted into marijuana’s possible medical
benefits, a U.N. report recommended
Tuesday.
Only scientific evidence from the
public and private sector can end the emo
tion-charged political debate over using
cannabis for patients, said Herbert S.
Okun, a member of die International Drug
Control Board
■ Peru
Fujimori flies woman
to hospital to give birth
LIMA (AP) - Peru’s president
assisted in an unexpected delivery
when a woman gave birth on his heli
copter, newspapers reported Monday.
Alberto Fujimori was inspecting
flood damage on Peru’s northern coast
Sunday when the father of Marcelina
Rojas, 23, asked him to fly his daughter
to a hospital. Rojas gave birth to a 6.6
pound baby boy before the helicopter
could reach Chimbote, 225 miles
northwest of Lima.
