On this date in 1999, a jury of 11 white persons and one black person, sentenced John William King to death for the brutal murder of James Byrd, a 49-year old Black man who was dragged to his death on a country road in Jasper, Texas, where King had hoped to start a white supremacist hate group. Two days earlier the jury deliberated just two hours before reaching its Guilty verdict. King became a member of a white supremacist prison gang when he was imprisoned in Tennessee County, Texas, for violating the terms of his probation at the age of 20.

On this date in New York City, in 2009, police arrested an African-American man, Hakim Scott, 25, of The Bronx, for the brutal gay-bashing of two straight Latino men, Jose Sucuzhañay, a real estate agency co-owner in Brooklyn, and his brother Romel. Mistaken for a gay couple, the Ecuadorian brothers were attacked as they walked arm-in-arm in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn on December 7, 2008. Jose suffered severe head injuries in the attack; he was declared brain dead on December 9, 2008, and he died on December 12, 2008. Eyewitnesses said Jose was repeatedly beaten with an aluminum baseball bat and repeatedly kicked by his assailants; they also said anti-gay and anti-Latino slurs were hurled at the Sucuzhañay brothers by two black attackers immediately before the assault. Romel, who was in the country briefly to visit his brother, escaped serious injury. Authorities arrested a second African-American suspect, Keith Phoenix, 28, also of The Bronx, on February 27, 2009, in Yonkers. Scott and Phoenix were each charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime and assault as a hate crime. Both Scott and Phoenix have previous criminal histories, and both have claimed self-defense.

In Framingham, Massachusetts, on this date in 2009, Kenneth R. Kuchinsky, 38, of Holliston, Massachusetts, was arrested and charged with a hate crime for allegedly kicking a man Kuchinsky perceived to be Russian and for allegedly yelling anti-Russian remarks at the victim in front of the Salvation Army. Kuchinsky—who is said to have called the arresting police officer a "Jew mother fucker" and who is also said to have made anti-Native American remarks when arrested—was charged with assault and battery with the purpose of intimidation (a hate crime), assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (his foot), and disorderly conduct. Kuckinsky was arraigned on February 26, 2009, out of the Framingham District Court and he pleaded not guilty.