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Thursday, Jan. 28, 1999

Dragging death suspect says he's the victim

`The system is turning against me,' writes King, who blames trial on a `judicial conspiracy'

By TERRI LANGFORD
Associated Press

   JASPER -- The ex-convict on trial for the dragging death of a black man lashed out at Jasper residents Wednesday for judging him unfairly and claimed he was a victim of a "judicial conspiracy."
   As lawyers tried for a third day to pare a 122-member jury pool, John William King spoke out in a letter published in the Wednesday's edition of The Jasper NewsBoy, the twice-weekly local newspaper.
   "I don't know why you are so eager to condemn me for this man's murder when no testimony has yet been heard, and I don't care about that, either," wrote King, a white man who could face the death penalty if convicted in the June 7 dragging death of James Byrd Jr.
   "The system is turning against me; but I still have law and order in my heart," he said in the letter, also published Wednesday in The Beaumont Enterprise, which prints NewsBoy.
   King, 24, and two other men are accused of chaining Byrd to a pickup and dragging him for nearly three miles because Byrd was black. The other defendants are awaiting trial.
   King's capital murder trial began with jury selection Monday. By the end of Wednesday, 13 people had been selected for a smaller pool of 46 from which 12 jurors and two alternates eventually will be chosen.
   Of the 13, six are white men, three are white women, two are black women and two are black men.
   Among those selected for the smaller pool Wednesday was the former partner of Jasper County Sheriff Billy Rowles when Rowles was a Texas state trooper.
   District Attorney Guy James Gray downplayed the associations of some jury candidates.
   "In a real serious case, the fact that they know somebody or knew them two or three years ago just doesn't have much impact," Gray said.
   "We haven't picked a jury yet," defense attorney Haden "Sonny" Cribbs noted.
   If a jury cannot be seated from the available pool, District Judge Joe Bob Golden might have to summon additional citizens for questioning. Fifteen more jury prospects were set to be interviewed today.
   In his letter, King insisted he was "simply a victim of a judicial conspiracy." He blamed the "hypercritical" residents of Jasper and what he said was the district attorney's personal bias for bringing him to trial.
   

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  © 1999 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.