Sister reflects on heinous murder.
It was today in 1998 that three white supremacists brutally murdered James Byrd Jr. by chaining him to the back of a pickup truck and dragging him to his death over a span of asphalt.
James' sister Betty Boatner remembers when she got the news this fateful day.
"The day that we got the news that our brother James was killed, was a very heinous time," says Boatner.
Boatner thinks that since the murder race relations in our area have still yet to fully improve.
"Some people have the same mentality that they can do and say as they please," said Boatner.
Councilmember C.O Bradford, who was the Chief of Police in Houston at the time, also remembers the Byrd death, saying that even though the murders were prosecuted he thinks ultimately there is still more healing to be had.
"I don’t know that you can bring justice to what happened to James Byrd," says Bradford.
Of the three men who committed the crime, one was executed last year, another is sitting on death row and yet another was sentenced to life in prison.
