One of three men convicted for his involvement in the infamous dragging death of a black man 13 years ago is scheduled to be executed Wednesday.
Lawrence Russell Brewer, 44, is scheduled to die by lethal injection for killing James Byrd.
Brewer and two other white men chained the 49-year-old black man to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him to death on a country road near Jasper, Texas.
Accomplice John William King also was sentenced to death and is awaiting an appeal. A third man, Shawn Berry, received life in prison.
A prosecutor called Brewer a racist psychopath during his 1999 trial.
During the trial, Brewer took the witness stand and contended that he was a bystander, not a killer.
He tearfully admitted being present when Byrd was dragged to his death but, he said, "I didn't mean to cause his death. I had no intentions of killing anybody."
Brewer, a former jailhouse Ku Klux Klan leader, said King initiated the killing by fighting with Byrd. He also said the third defendant, Berry, slashed Byrd's throat and then chained him to Berry's pickup. Brewer admitted kicking Byrd and spraying Byrd's face with black paint.
But he said it was a reflex action taken to try to break up the fight between Byrd and King.
The execution would be the 11th this year in Texas, the most active death-penalty state.
