With a tattoo on his body of a Black man hanging from a rope, John William King, a white-supremacist with a tenth grade education, was convicted on this date in 1999 of the racially motivated murder of James Byrd, a 49-year-old disabled Black man. King, 23 years of age at the time of the slaying, beat Mr. Byrd with a baseball bat, and then tied him to a gray 1982 Ford pick-up truck and dragged him to his death on Huff Creek Road in Jasper, Texas. Mr. Byrd was decapitated. King, an Atlanta, Georgia, native, was released from prison just a year before the hate crime killing of Mr. Byrd; he had been serving a 10-year sentence for burglary and was on parole for that crime at the time he murdered Mr. Byrd. Read more about this prominent hate crime at our June 7, February 25, September 23, and November 18 calendar pages.

On this date in 2007, the weekly San Francisco newspaper, AsianWeek, which bills itself as the voice of Asian America, printed an editorial by New York City science-fiction writer and self-described Asian supremacist, Kenneth Eng, titled "Why We Hate Blacks". The newspaper, prompted by community outrage, apologized for the op. ed. piece which described why Eng supports discrimination against blacks. Eng was subsequently suspended from writing for the paper.

On this date in 2007, 72-year old Andrew Anthos succumbed to injuries sustained in what he described as gay hate crime attack outside his Detroit, Michigan apartment ten days earlier. He died after being paralyzed from the neck down and after lapsing into a coma that was caused not by an attack from a man who asked Anthos if he was gay while riding on a city bus, as Anthos claimed, but rather from a degenerative spinal disease, according the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on the elderly man. Anthos, who was gay but who was not a gay activist, was known for his twenty-year patriotic crusade to have the Michigan state capitol dome in Lansing lit in red, white and blue one night of the year to honor military veterans and police officers. One can only speculate why he fabricated the hate crime story.

On this date in 2008, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a 37-year-old gay white male, Melbourne Brunner, of Fort Lauderdale, was assaulted by a white man who had followed Mr. Brunner to his vehicle after uttering several anti-gay slurs directed at Mr. Brunner and his friend as the two dined outside at The Floridian Restaurant located at 1410 East Las Olas Boulevard. The white male assailant, last seen in a sage green, four-door Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, after punching Mr. Brunner in the face knocking him to the ground, also threatened Mr. Brunner’s companion stating, “I’ll kill you before you get my tag number” when the friend tried to obtain the man’s license plate number.

In Aztec, New Mexico, on this date in 2009 Anthony Kinn, 44, of Kirtland, New Mexico, and Dane Maestas, 26, of Bloomfield, New Mexico, were sentenced for a hate-crime incident whereby they drove an illegal immigrant from a gas station in Aztec on June 21, 2008, to Chokecherry Canyon where they stole his wallet, assaulted him, and repeatedly directed anti-Mexican slurs at him. Kinn and Maestas were orginally charged with first-degree kidnapping, third-degree robbery and third-degree conspiracy. Kinn was also initially charged with third-degree assault with intent to commit a violent felony. Hate crime charges were never filed against Kinn and Maestas by the District Attorney's Office. Both men pleaded guilty to robbery in exchange for all the other charges being dropped. Kinn was sentenced to three years in prison, and Maestas was sentenced to seven years in prison. Maestas also pleaded No Contest on this date in 2009 to an unrelated aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge. He has a prior criminal history in New Mexico that includes convictions for burglary in 2000 and 2005, robbery in 2001, and aggravated fleeing of law enforcement in 2003. At the time of his sentencing for the attack on the illegal immigrant, Maestas also had an open kidnapping charge out of the Albuquerque state court. Kinn, who accepted an Alford plea in January, 2009, for attacking the immigrant victim, was also convicted in 2002 of drug possession and possession of a firearm by a felon.

On this date in 2009 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a 26-year-old Latino man was shot in the leg when he tried to stop two men from robbing his older brother, and the following day (February 24, 2009, which was Mardi Gras) a 37-year-old Latino man was shot in the chest in retaliation for the earlier shooting even though this individual was not involved in the first incident. Two black men, Anthony Hatcher, 18, of Baton Rouge, said to be the triggerman, and Dominique Vallier, 17, of Port Allen, were arrested on March 12, 2009, and charged with attempted armed robbery, attempted first-degree murder, and hate crimes because the victims were specifically targeted because of their Hispanic ethnicity. Hatcher and Vallier were also charged with an armed robbery that happened on February 25, 2009, and as fugitives from the Houma Police Department on first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder charges. Hatcher also was charged with another armed robbery from yet another incident.

In Bradenton, Florida, on this date in 2009, a homeless Vietnam veteran who suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and father of three daughters, Daniel A. Case, 59, was found sitting in a chair behind Griggs Plumbing, located 1317 12th Avenue West, having been beaten to death by being struck repeatedly over the head with a blunt object. Mr. Case often performed odd jobs at Griggs Plumbing in exchange for being allowed to sleep on a cot behind the building where he was killed, and many believe his murder was due to his homelessness status. On May 29, 2009, two teenage SUR-13 gang members, Robert A. Ramirez, 18, and Luis A. Rincon, 17, both of Bradenton, were arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy to commit burglary; both pleaded not guilty. No hate crime charges were filed, because Florida does not have a hate crime statute that includes homelessness status (in October, 2009, Maryland became the first state to expand its hate-crime law to add stiffer penalties for attacks on the homeless). Mr. Case was murdered just two weeks before his planned trip to Ohio where he had planned to live with his children.

On this date in 2011 in a Union City, New Jersey (Hudson County) courtroom, a five-woman and three-man jury awarded a gay male couple—Peter J. Casbar, 43, and Noel E. Robichaux, 46—$3.15 million in compensatory and punitive damages due to an anti-gay hate crime attack against the couple at a Union City, New Jersey, Burger King located on the corner of 35th Street and Bergenline Avenue on July 22, 2007, whereby the restaurant manager and a group of restaurant employees chased the couple out of the restaurant and then kicked, beat and spat on them while hurling anti-gay slurs at them. Food Service Properties Corporation and Union City Restaurant Corporation—owners of the Burger King—were ordered to pay the multi-million dollar judgment. Mr. Robichaux and Mr. Casbar—who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression following the attack—filed their civil lawsuit against the Burger King franchise owners and their employees on August 6, 2009. Previously, two Jersey City, New Jersey men who were Burger King employees—Angel Caraballo, 28 at the time of his November 2007 indictment; and Christopher Soto, 19 at the time of his November 2007 indictment—were charged by a grand jury with six charges including second- and third-degree aggravated assault and a first-degree hate crime charge; both men pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on Mr. Casbar and Mr. Robichaux. Tragically, when police arrived during the attack, it was Mr. Robichaux and Mr. Casbar who were charged with harassment; those charges were later dropped.