WASHINGTON, June 19 -- Branding the murder of James Byrd Jr. as 'shocking and outrageous,' President Clinton promised that the investigation of the allegedly racially motivated killing will be 'thorough and fair' and that the guilty will be brought to justice. Three men, two of whom were former cellmates, have been charged with chaining the disabled Byrd to the back of their pickup truck and dragging him along a dirt road to his death in East Texas last weekend.
Two of the men, sporting white supremacist tatoos, were arrested after Byrd's tattered body was discovered in a wooded area of Jasper County on Sunday. In remarks before the commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, Clinton said, 'We are determined that the investigation will be thorough, will be fair and that the guilty will be brought to justice.' 'I ask for your thoughts and your prayers to be with the family of Mr. Byrd today, and with the people of that community, because in the face of this tragedy they must join together across racial lines to demonstrate that an act of evil like this is not what this country is all about,' he added. 'I think we have all been touched by it. I can only imagine that virtually everyone who lives there is in agony at this moment. But they must reaffirm, and so must we, that we will not tolerate this,' Clinton said. An arrest affidavit says one of the three men accused in the killing made reference to hate groups during the attack. The FBI joined the investigation because it may have involved a hate crime, and federal authorities are weighing whether to file civil rights charges. ---
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