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Supports of Jacquline McClelland, mother of Brandon McClelland, gather during a rally in front to the Lamar County Courthouse in Paris, Texas, Monday, Nov. 17, 2008. Supporters of McClelland whose 24-year-old son was run over and dragged beneath a pickup truck in East Texas in September, rallied with members of the New Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam in an organized event to speak out against a justice system they consider racist.

The death came 10 years after James Byrd was killed in Jasper, another East Texas town. Authorities have disputed that racism was the motivation for McClelland’s death, citing the victim’s decade-long friendship with the two suspects. They also point out that McClelland was run over and not chained to the back of a truck, as Byrd was.

PARIS, Texas Protesters galvanized by a dragging death that has stirred memories of the notorious James Byrd case rallied twice outside an eastern Texas courthouse to speak out against a judicial system they consider racist.

About 60 people, led by a contingent from the New Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam, met at the Lamar County Courthouse on Monday to bring attention to the death of Brandon McClelland. The groups later returned with about 200 protesters. Afterward, dozens of people chanting “No justice, no peace!” marched to a nearby church for a meeting.

Authorities say two white suspects purposely ran over McClelland, who is black, following an argument on the way home from a late-night beer run in September. McClelland’s body was torn apart as it was dragged some 70 feet beneath a pickup truck near Paris, a city about 95 miles northeast of Dallas with a history of tense relations between blacks and whites.

The death came 10 years after James Byrd was killed in Jasper, another eastern Texas town. Byrd was chained to the back of a pickup by three white men and dragged for three miles.

“How do we get justice for Brandon McClelland?” cried Anthony Bond, founder of the Irving chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“We can’t get justice for Brandon,” answered another man. “He’s dead.”

Authorities have disputed that racism was the motivation for McClelland’s death, citing his decade-long friendship with the two suspects. They also point out that McClelland was run over and not chained to the back of a truck.

That stance angered McClelland’s mother and activists, who pressured Lamar County and District Attorney Gary Young to step aside in part because he once was the court-appointed defense attorney for one of the suspects.

That suspect, Shannon Finley, was charged with murder in 2003 for the fatal shooting of a friend. He eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter and served four years in prison.

In that same case, McClelland pleaded guilty to perjury for providing a false alibi for Finley’s whereabouts on the night of the shooting. He was sentenced to five years’ probation but served some jail time when he violated its terms, prosecutor Bill Harris said.

Young has recused himself from the McClelland case, citing his past association with Finley. A judge has appointed former Dallas County assistant district attorney Toby Shook as special prosecutor.

Finley and Charles Crostley remain in the Lamar County Jail on murder charges. They have not been indicted; the grand jury is scheduled to meet next month.

On Monday, sitting mostly alone away from the speakers, McClelland’s mother said she was attending the rally “to see that justice gets done for my son.” She blamed Young for Finley’s short sentence.

“If he had done the right thing, I’m positive my son would be alive today,” Jacquline McClelland said.

Young spokesman Allan Hubbard declined comment.

Deric Muhammad, of the Nation of Islam in Houston, warned prosecutors to “handle this case wisely.”

“If you want to rewrite some of the history of Paris and Lamar County, handle this case properly,” Muhammad said.

The protest, held around the corner from a 20-foot tall Confederate war memorial statue dedicated to “Our Heroes,” attracted about a dozen white onlookers who watched from a parking lot about 30 yards away. More than a dozen law enforcement officials stood on street corners near the protesters. There were no arrests.

Another dragging death in Texas raises tensions

By JEFF CARLTON – Oct 24, 2008

PARIS, Texas (AP) — In a gruesome case with powerful echoes of the dragging death of James Byrd a decade ago, a black man was killed underneath a pickup truck in East Texas and two white men have been charged with murder.

Jacquline McClelland poses with a photo of her son Brandon McClelland, Friday, Oct. 24, 2008, in Paris, Texas. Brandon, a black man, was on a late-night beer run across state lines to Oklahoma with two white friends last month and ended up dead on a rural Texas road. Authorities say he was run over by a pickup and then dragged as far as 70 feet beneath the truck. Two white men have been charged with murder in the case. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Black activists and the victim’s mother are calling last month’s killing of 24-year-old Brandon McClelland a racist attack. But prosecutors cast strong doubt on that Friday.

McClelland died after going with two white friends on a late-night beer run across the state line to Oklahoma, investigators said. Authorities said he was run over and dragged as far as 70 feet beneath the truck. His torn-apart body was discovered along a bloodstained rural road on Sept. 16. His mother said pieces of his skull could still be found three days later.

The case has raised racial tensions in Paris, a town of 26,000 with a history of fraught relations between blacks and whites.

To some, it sounded like the Byrd case, in which a black man in the East Texas town of Jasper, about 200 miles south of Paris, was chained by the ankles to the back of a pickup by three white supremacists and dragged for three miles. Two of the killers are now on death row; the third is serving a life sentence.

Prosecutors in the McClelland case said they are looking into whether one of the defendants, Shannon Keith Finley, was in a white supremacist gang while in prison for killing a friend.

But they said they have seen no evidence so far that McClelland’s slaying was racially motivated. And they noted the three men had been friends for years.

“This is a group of guys who had black friends and white friends,” said Allan Hubbard, a spokesman for the Lamar County district attorney’s office. He added: “Any comparison to Jasper and James Byrd is preposterous.”

Autopsy results are expected back next week. While investigators don’t believe McClelland was tied to the truck, they planned to look closely for marks on the body that would indicate precisely how he was dragged.

Community activist Brenda Cherry said authorities have not seriously considered the possibility this was a hate crime. “There’s a problem in Paris, Texas,” she said. “I don’t see a difference in getting dragged behind a truck and getting dragged under a truck.”

A flier advertising a Saturday memorial service for McClelland said he was “the victim of a brutal and racist hate crime.” The New Black Panthers met with investigators and held a news conference at the courthouse promising to examine the killing.

“I truly feel that race played a part in it,” said the victim’s mother, Jacquline McClelland. “It is a racist town, and Paris has always been a racist town.”

The city is perhaps best known for its 70-foot Eiffel Tower replica topped by a giant red cowboy hat. Paris, which is 73 percent white and 22 percent black, was in the news last year after a black girl was sentenced to up to seven years in a juvenile prison hundreds of miles from her home for shoving a teacher’s aide at school, while a white girl was sentenced by the same judge to probation for burning down her parents’ house.

At the town square, decorated with pumpkins and hay bales for Halloween, the mother of the black girl said Friday that she began to feel Paris was a racist town after moving there from Oklahoma.

“There’s a certain amount of fear that is pressed into black people when they live in Paris,” said Creola Cotton.

According to court papers, Finley and Charles Ryan Crostley, both 27, told police they left the dry town to get beer in Oklahoma, and on the way back, the three men, all apparently drunk, argued about who was sober enough to drive. McClelland, an unmarried maintenance worker, decided to walk home, taking some beer with him, the men told police.

But Finley’s estranged wife and one of his friends said they had been told by the two defendants that Finley began to bump McClelland with the front of his truck until McClelland fell, and Finley drove over him, according to court papers. Crostley and Finley then allegedly drove to a car wash to clean off the blood.

Crostley and Finley are jailed on charges of murder and evidence-tampering. Finley’s attorney did not immediately return a message. There was no answer at the phone listing for Crostley’s lawyer.

As in many small towns, some of the players are connected. The district attorney, Gary Young, was once the court-appointed lawyer for Finley, who was charged with murder in 2003. Finley eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to four years.

In that same case, McClelland pleaded guilty to perjury for providing a false alibi for Finley. He was sentenced to five years’ probation but served some jail time when he violated its terms, prosecutor Bill Harris said.

McClelland’s mother said that on the day her son died, he had called Finley to ask for his help on a home repair project at another friend’s house.

“For the life of me, I cannot understand it,” she said. “They didn’t have to run over and kill my baby. They could have brought him home.”