James Byrd Jr was murdered by being beaten and dragged in a horrific hate crime in 1998.
In 2013 a Mississippi mayoral candidate Marco McMillian, the first openly Gay one in the state, was beaten, dragged, and set afire in what with these details indicates a hate crime. A man that had wrecked his car was arrested shortly before finding the body and there are some reports that the person arrested directed the police to the location of the body.
JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) - A gay, black mayoral candidate killed last week in Mississippi was beaten, dragged and set on fire before his body was dumped near a river, according to his family.In a statement issued late on Sunday, the family of Marco McMillian said a coroner who performed an autopsy on his body told them about the gruesome manner of death."We feel this was not a random act of violence based on the condition of the body when it was found," the McMillian family said. "Marco, nor anyone, should have their lives end in this manner."