An avowed racist who orchestrated one of the most gruesome hate crimes in U.S. history has been executed in Texas for the dragging death of a black man.

John William King, who was white, received lethal injection Wednesday evening for the 1998 slaying of James Byrd Jr., who was chained to the back of a truck and dragged along a road outside Jasper, Texas.

Prosecutors said Byrd was targeted because he was black.

The 44-year-old King was put to death at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.

The hate crime put a national spotlight on Jasper, a town of about 7,600 residents near the Texas-Louisiana border that was branded with a racist stigma it has tried to shake off ever since.

King was the second man executed for Byrd's killing. A third man was sentenced to life in prison.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused a last-day appeal, clearing the way for his execution.

The justices ruled about 30 minutes after King's execution was scheduled to be carried out. His attorneys had argued King's trial lawyers violated his constitutional rights by not presenting his claims of innocence and conceding his guilt.

Prison agency spokesman Jeremy Desel says King said little following his transfer to Huntsville from death row, at a prison 45 miles away. King has declined any counseling from a chaplain and has selected no one to witness his punishment.

Two of Byrd's sisters and a niece witnessed the execution.

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