In Jasper, Texas, a jury convicted John William King of murder in the brutal dragging death of James Byrd, Jr., an African-American. King is one of three men charged with the crime. Phil Ponce talks with Clara Tuma of Court TV about the case.

JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight, the Jasper, Texas, verdict, and to Phil Ponce.

PHIL PONCE: This afternoon, a jury in Jasper, Texas, found 24-year-old John William King guilty in the dragging death of an African-American man, James Byrd, Jr. The crime last June put Jasper in the national spotlight. Here now with more is Clara Tuma, a reporter for Court TV who's been covering the trial. Clara, it didn't take the jury very long to reach the verdict, did it?

CLARA TUMA, Court TV: A little more than two hours, which was no big surprise. The lawyers even had hung around the courtroom because they thought this would be a fairly quick verdict.

PHIL PONCE: Clara, take us inside the courtroom. Was there any visible reaction from the defendant when the verdict was read?

CLARA TUMA: There was not. In fact, he hasn't reacted during the entire trial, even when grizzly testimony about autopsy reports and pathologists testified, he hasn't changed expressions at all. Again, he did not react when he went from accused murderer to convicted capital murderer, no change of emotion.

PHIL PONCE: Clara, and yet, there was reaction in the courtroom itself. Tell us about that.

CLARA TUMA: There was. In fact, as the verdict was read one lone spectator began to applaud. And then she quickly quit when nobody else jumped in with her. As the jury was being taken out of the courtroom and led back to the jury room, there were still maybe eight or nine jurors in, and the audience erupted into applause and began to grow louder and louder until Prosecutor Guy James Gray held up his hand and said, "Stop. The jury is still in the courtroom." Now, members of James Byrd's family have been there every day in numbers, more than a dozen family members every day in court. Several of them began to cry as the verdict was read and perhaps the most noticeable reaction was from the father of the defendant, Ron King, the father. He's in a wheelchair, breathes from an oxygen bottle - is in very poor health. And he began to sob as his son was convicted of capital murder. A priest who was sitting behind him leaned over and began to rub his back and whisper words of comfort to him.

PHIL PONCE: Clara, very briefly, summarize what it is the prosecution said happened.

CLARA TUMA: Happened out on the night of the murder?

PHIL PONCE: Yes, exactly.

CLARA TUMA: They say three white supremacists were out looking to get attention to try and get publicity for a new racist group they hoped to start. They say they picked up James Byrd, Jr., offered him a ride home -- with the black man, James Byrd never suspected what was about to happen to him. They say they took him to a dirt logging road, beat him up, and then chained him to the back of a pickup truck and drove him -- dragged him on a road for almost three miles, ending in front of a black cemetery.

PHIL PONCE: And the evidence, the prosecutors maintained, linked Mr. King to the crime. What kind of things do they say tied him to the death?

CLARA TUMA: The direct evidence was some DNA evidence. They found blood from the victim on a shoe belonging to the defendant. They also found a cigarette butt out at the murder scene with the defendant's DNA on it out at the murder scene, along with a lighter that he used. They knew it was his because it had the name "Possum" written on it with the "S's" in "Possum" as lightning bolts. And that is the defendant's nickname. That's how he signed many things. That's the direct evidence. Then they had other racist writings, indicating the defendant did not like African-Americans, and tattoos all over his body - I'm sorry - all over his arms, including one of a black man being lynched. And the prosecution argued "You look on his arms to see what's in his heart."

PHIL PONCE: But, again, earlier you alluded to the fact that the prosecution maintains that the motivation was what? An attempt to -- an attempt to jump-start a white racist group that the defendant allegedly wanted to start?

CLARA TUMA: Right. There was some writing found in his apartment that said he was starting a new group called "The Texas Rebel Soldiers Division of the Confederate Knights of America." And the testimony from the state's experts were he needed a big event to try and garner publicity, not only in the media, but to find other white supremacists who wanted to come join in the group. And the state has speculated this murder might have been for that reason, or there are three co-defendants in this case, one of them did not "earn his stripes" in the white supremacy movement. And the state also says this might have been an initiation rite for that third co-defendant, Sean Berry, to earn his way into a racist group.

PHIL PONCE: Clara, did prosecutors say why it is they decided to try this defendant first of the three?

CLARA TUMA: They thought he was the ringleader. They thought he was the one who instigated the whole thing. It was his writing that was speaking of this new white supremacist organization, so they went with him first.

PHIL PONCE: And he chose not to testify in this trial, is that correct?

CLARA TUMA: He did. And that was strictly his decision. His attorneys say right up until the time they rested their case they weren't sure. In fact, we saw it; we saw in the courtroom -- right before the defense rested they leaned over and whispered something to him and he shook his head. And then they stood up and said "the defense rests." They said they weren't sure right until that moment he wouldn't take the stand - and give jurors his version of events.

PHIL PONCE: What kind of case did the defense put on?

CLARA TUMA: Not much of one in terms of real evidence. They only called three witnesses. It took less than an hour trying to explain some of the tattoos that have satanic symbols on them or racist emblems, and tried to show that he got those behind prison bars when he was an inmate in the Texas prison system. The defense has maintained that prison made him do it, that he was fine until he went in, but when he was an inmate, he ran into bigger inmates and badder inmates and meaner inmates and that he festooned his arms with these tattoos not because he necessarily shared these beliefs, but as a way to try and intimidate other inmates and try to protect himself, and they say that's why he joined the Aryan Brotherhood in prison, a racist organization, was for his own protection. That was the thrust of the defense. That's probably what we'll see in this, the punishment phase, as well.

PHIL PONCE: And tell us about the punishment phase. That's what the jury is in the middle of now. What decisions do they have to make?

CLARA TUMA: Well, the only -- the final decision is shall he be sentenced to death or shall he be sentenced to life in prison, which, in this case, would mean 40 years minimum before he's eligible for parole. It's more complicated than that. They're actually asked three questions: "Did he intend for this victim to die?" That goes for in case he wasn't actually driving the truck. The prosecution says they don't know who was driving the truck during the dragging death, but if you're involved and if you encourage and participate, then you can be held just as accountable as the one who actually drove the truck. There's that. They have to decide, is he a continuing danger to society? And the most important question after looking at all the evidence: Is there any reason you would like to give this defendant life instead of death?

PHIL PONCE: Clara Tuma, thank you very much.