Texas town reflects on dragging death ahead of execution

JASPER, Texas (AP) — A Texas town is still haunted by a gruesome hate crime in which a black man was dragged behind a pickup truck and killed by three white men nearly 21 years ago.
The history of Jasper will be revisited Wednesday, when the ringleader responsible for the brutal 1998 killing of James Byrd Jr. is scheduled to be executed.
Jasper leaders say their community’s reputation as a place of racial unrest and intolerance is undeserved.
But other townspeople, as well as members