Remember, this is texas. Also he wanted three fajitas. He also wanted a whole pizza. He requested a meat lovers pizza, which as far as i can tell is a pizza hut branded pizza that has pepperoni and ham and more ground beef and bacon and sausage on it. He also requested a pint of blue bell ice cream, vanilla flavor, and he asked for a slab of Peanut Butter fudge with crushed peanuts on top. He then also asked for three root beers to wash it all down. That was his requested last meal before he was executed by the state of texas. He requested the meal. The prison obtained the meal for him. And then he said he was not hungry and did not eat any of it. And that was why texas got rid of the practice of granting prisoners their chosen final meal before their execution. Because of what Lawrence Russell brewer did for his last meal before texas killed him. Just before his execution, lawrence brewer, the same guy, told khou in houston that he had no regrets, the crime for which he was being executed, he would do it all over again tomorrow. As far as any regrets, no, im still i had no regrets. No, i would do it all over again, to tell you the truth. Id do it all over again to tell you the truth. What he did not regret, what he said he would do all over again, to tell you the truth, was the murder in 1998 in jasper, texas, of 49yearold james byrd jr. Mr. Byrd accepted a ride from three young men, one of whom you saw speak from prison there a moment ago before he was executed. Lawrence russell brewer. Also sean barry and john king. Those three young men picked up mr. Byrd in jasper, texas, in a june day in 1998. They beat him nearly to death. They tortured him. Urinated on him. They used a chain to tie him to the rear bumper of their pickup truck. They put the chain around his ankles and they started driving with him dragging behind the truck on this country road. He was alive when they tied him to the truck then they drove down that road for three miles. And that was how james byrd jr. Died in jasper, texas. The forensic evidence, you see it circled there in spray paint and marked there on the side of the road. The forensic evidence of james byrds death stretched for three miles down that road. Now, the men who killed james byrd were covered in white supremacist and neonazi tattoos. Including one of the suspects having a tattoo that showed a black man lynched hanging from a tree, as well as nazi tattoos. That defendant, john king, wrote a jailhouse letter to his codefendant, lawrence brewer, a letter that was intercepted by prison authorities. It read in part regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history. Death before dishonor. Sieg heil. Lawrence brewer had given himself the title exhorted cyclops in a white supremacist gang. James byrd died in jasper, texas, in june 1998. Four months after james byrd died, two young men named Aaron Mckinney and Russell Henderson went to the fireside lounge in downtown laramie, wyoming, and in that bar they picked up a 21yearold College Student named matthew. They drove him out of town in their pickup truck. They tied him to the fence in a middle of a field and tortured him to death. 18 hours after he was left there, he was found by a passing cyclist who initially thought he was a scare crow. He was a young man in a coma by then who would never regain consciousness and died in the hospital five days later. It was a gruesome discovery at this fence Late Wednesday afternoon as the sun was setting, two bicyclists approached and at first they said they looked like a scarecrow had been tied to the fence. The lifeless body of 21yearold Matthew Shepard, a university of miami freshman, a gay man barely alive tonight, in a coma, on life support. Shepard, a small man was allegedly beaten with the butt of a pistol, burned with cigarette butts and tied spread eagle to the fence left to die. That was part of nbcs nightly News Coverage in october of 1998. That happened four months after the murder of james byrd in texas. It would take more than a decade after that, but in 2009, more than 10 years after those two predatory pact murders, it would take until 2009 for president obama to sign into law the Matthew Shepard and james byrd jr. Hate Crime Prevention act. When president obama signed that into law and spoke about what that law meant, he stood with dennis and judy, the parents of Matthew Shepard, you can see to the president s right on the left side of your screen there and also betty and luvonne, the sisters of james byrd, on the right side of your screen there. He stood with them while the president explained this law. Imagine the mindset of someone who would kidnap a young man and beat him to within an inch of his life, tie him to a fence and leave him for dead. Its hard for any of us to imagine the twisted mentality of those who would offer a neighbor a ride home, attack him, chain him to the back of a truck and drag him for miles until he finally died. But we sense where such rule cruelty begins. The moment we fail to see in another our common humanity. That was 2009, the first year president obama was in office. And that bill was one of the signature achievements of his first term. See, that bill had been fought for for a long time, but the previous president , george w. Bush, killed an earlier version of the hate crimes law named for james byrd and Matthew Shepard. He killed it by threatening to veto it. President obama signed it. And the basic idea is to assert that there is a National Interest beyond the standard interest we have against crime. There is a National Interest in american Minority Groups not being terrorized by violence that is meant to harm not only direct victim, but to menace and intimidate the Minority Group they belong to. Furthermore, the idea of a federal hate crimes statute is to provide resources, persecutory resources and investigatory resources to local authorities to make sure crimes like this get prosecuted and get prosecuted successfully. And lastly, a federal hate crimes statute can be used to bring cases directly for the federal government to bring cases directly in crimes that otherwise would have handled at the state or local level. The Justice Department can try these crimes. And that is what the Justice Department is deciding right now about the Trayvon Martin case in florida after the acquittal this weekend of the man who shot Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman. One of the changes in that law that is named for james byrd and Matthew Shepard, it used to be the feds could only get involved on civil rights grounds like this if the victim was participating in an activity that was considered to be federally protected while he or she was attacked. It was a weird jurisdictional quirk in the law that meant unless you were voting or something, trying to vote, going to school or some other specific thing that had been adjudicated, that the federal government had a role in protecting, unless you were doing Something Like that when you were attacked or killed, the law could not be applied to your case. Well, james byrd was walking down a country road when his attackers found him. Matthew shepard was at a bar when his attackers found him. Under the law, that changed in 2009 in their names, that fact about each of those cases would not be a barrier to federal assistance with those cases. It would not be a barrier to the federal opportunity, for the federal government having an opportunity to step in, to bring a case if local prosecutors had refused to do so on their own. Because of that change in the law, so it no longer has to be a federally protected activity that youre doing when the crime happens, because of that change in the law, the Justice Department can now decide and is now deciding if it wants to bring a federal civil rights case, likely a hate crimes case, to try to convict George Zimmerman, even though that jury and that Florida State court found him not guilty. The Justice Department has put out a statement saying experienced federal prosecutors will determine whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation of any of the limited federal criminal civil rights statutes within our jurisdiction. And whether federal prosecution is appropriate in accordance with departments policy governing successive federal prosecution following a state trial. Successive federal prosecution after the state trial. A lot of the commentary on this today assumes that this would be a radical step or unusual step for the u. S. Justice department to take. You know, the federal hate crimes statute named for Matthew Shepard and james byrd, it is not a dead letter. It gets used all the time. Last month a seattle man pled guilty to a federal hate crime under the act. He pled guilty for assaulting a sikh taxi driver, prosecuted by a federal prosecutor. Guilty plea in that case. On the same day the fbi made that announcement, they announced a federal hate crimes indictment under the Matthew Shepard and james byrd act, for two people who attacked a gay couple on the street in hillsborough, oregon. Two people in kentucky sentenced to 8 to 30 years in prison for luring a gay man into their vehicle, driving him to a remote location and beating him nearly to death before he escaped. Brought as a federal prosecution under the hate crimes prevention act. Nobody knows that the Justice Department is going to bring a federal prosecution in this case, too. Really nobody knows. There arent good educated guesses out there. Anybody who says they know what the Justice Department is going to do here and isnt actually the Justice Department, is making it up. If the Justice Department did decide to act here, if they did decide to bring charges in this case under that hate crimes law, it would put the issue of race and specifically alleged racial motivation for the killing at the very center of the case. That issue was central, of course, to the National Furor and the National Discussion about this case, but it was almost entirely absent as a formal legal issue in the formal Legal Proceedings that just concluded in Seminole County. Everything connected to race and the defendants state of mind that was excluded from the statelevel Court Proceedings would be at the center, at the center, would be the heart of any federal court case on this issue if there ever will be one. Joining us now is benjamin jealous, president and ceo of the naacp, advocating for the Justice Department to take up federal charges in this case. The naacp is having its annual convention in florida this week. Mr. Jealous, ben, thank you for being with us tonight. Thank you, rachel. Your organization is asking doj to file civil rights charges against mr. Zimmerman in this case. What kind of feedback have you had from your call for that . How are people responding to that as an idea . First of all, the country has responded in a ways thats just incredible. We have almost 1 million signatures just since the verdict, and that includes the fact that our servers were down for over 12 hours because they were, the traffic, the volume was too much for them to handle. At one point, we were getting about 100 signatures per second. And this just tells, and these are people of all colors from across the country who just believe our country can do better than what happened in sanford. And who believe that the u. S. Doj has a role to play in protecting all our children. From people who would track them and taunt them and confront them and kill them on the street. And ultimately choose to engage because of their color. And theres a lot of disturbing information. Lets not forget witness number 9. George zimmermans own cousin who just a few days after this killing called the cops and said, i think he did this because of race. And lets not forget about the boys who live in that neighborhood. Boys of color who say they felt like he targeted them because of their race. And lets not forget him saying that, you know, these people, these punks always get away with this. And then looking and seeing that he had called the Police Dozens and dozens and dozens of times disproportionately about young men of color that he thought were suspect. And the reality is that there was no reason to think that Trayvon Martin was doing anything other than what he was doing. Which was walking down the street with a can of soda and a bag of skittles. Can of iced tea and a bag of skittles trying get away from a man who he thought was creepy. That man kept tracking him. Got out of the car, taunted him. Ultimately pulled out a gun he had intentionally purchased because it didnt have a safety, and shot him through the heart. We believe in this country, you do that to one of our boys of any color, that you deserve to be held accountable. Ben, the issues that youre raising there, the factual issues and the witness statements that youre raising there, a lot of them were not covered in great detail in the Seminole County courthouse in terms of the proceedings that ended on saturday with that verdict. Do you think that if federal prosecutors did bring a federal case against mr. Zimmerman that there is sufficient, i guess sufficient direct evidence to bring the charges here under the kinds of narrow concerns that you need to be able to prove under hate crimes law . I mean, the hate crimes statute is fairly narrowly drawn. Its fairly narrowly drawn. What it says, is, look, you have to show race is a factor and bodily harm was done. We believe theres enough evidence to satisfy that standard. And the reality is that, you know, the issue has been kind of muddled because we have a judge who seems to be a wonderful person in a bunch of ways but we think made a very she made a very serious choice to exclude any discussion of racial profiling. And the reality is is, look, we dont permit our officers to use race as grounds for suspicion and kill somebody after they taunt and confront them and not be held accountable. And we shouldnt let citizens not be held accountable for doing that, either. Ben, let me ask you in terms of response to the verdict, obviously theres been spontaneous reaction across the country. A lot of wellorganized reaction, too. People just turning out in the streets and expressing themselves in reaction to this verdict. I know that youve been in touch with the martin family. And i just want to ask you how they are doing following this verdict, if you can tell us, and how they feel about the way the country has responded. I think it would be better to let their lawyers speak for them. Ive been in touch with their lawyers. Weve actually given them great space. We are here in orlando, but theyre back home in miami. And, you know, from what we understood, they were exhausted. They wanted time to go to church and to heal as a family. And weve respected that. But i think, you know, all of us, certainly all of us who have children can really i think empathize with what they must be going through. You know, i when i heard the verdict, i picked up my young son, jack, and i just held him and listened to him breathe and there was a moment as i was just kind of swirling in the aftermath of this decision that i just it just occurred to me that tracy martin will never be able to hold his son, trayvon, in his arms again and just hear him breathe. And thats because George Zimmerman tracked him, taunted him, disregarded the request of police to stay in his car and engaged him and killed him. And, you know, again, theres enough evidence here, evidence the judge excluded suggesting that race may have factored in, including the testimony of his own cousin of George Zimmermans own cousin to suggest that, yes, charges should be brought. Now, once charges are brought, Justice System will run its course. We from the beginning urged people to put their faith in the Justice System, but you cant put, you know you cant say put your faith in the Justice System but stop with a comma. No, youve got to let it run to the end on the sentence, and in our country, that includes statelevel options and federallevel options as well. A. Neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. Forms a Broad Spectrum barrier for full strength sun protection. Wet skin. Neutrogena®. The city of sanford, florida, population 54,000, has never seen anything like the George Zimmerman trial in terms of the international attention, the unrelenting media coverage. So in anticipation of a verdict, and the outpouring of emotion and interest in this case, the entire sanford, florida, Police Department has been on standby for over six weeks since before the trial even began. The police chief suspended all vacations and suspended all furloughs. Police officers were given special training to prepare for when a verdict was announced. A special command center was set up in case things got out of control. But that is not what happened. Saturday night when the Court Announced that a jury had found mr. Zimmerman not guilty of seconddegree murder or manslaughter in th