A white supremacist convicted of killing James Byrd Jr. in 1998 by dragging the 49-year-old black man behind a truck in one of the most notorious hate crimes of modern times was executed in Texas on Wednesday.

John William "Bill" King, 44, was put to death by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 7:08pm at the state's death chamber in Huntsville, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a statement.