His sentence handed down in Brazos County, one of the men behind a gruesome East Texas murder in 1998 has been executed.

Lawrence Russell Brewer was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. Wednesday night in Huntsville, nearly 12 years to the day he was transported from the courthouse in Bryan to Death Row in Livingston.

Brewer and two others were found responsible for the beating and dragging death of James Byrd Jr., a racially-motivated act by Brewer, a professed white supremacist.

There were no appeals filed on Brewer's behalf.

"There were a lot of tears coming from his parents," said Lindsey Kovacevich, a reporter for KFDM in Beaumont who witnessed the execution. "His brother never once looked at Brewer until, finally, it was over."

Witnesses say Brewer only looked at the room with his family, not the one holding Byrd's family.

"James stood up for us," Byrd's sister Clara Taylor said after the execution. "He had our back all the time. He was the life of our family. He would be happy to see us standing up for him."

Taylor said she believes the death penalty should be used on a case-by-case basis, and that it was warranted in Brewer's case.

When asked if it felt like it had been 12 years since her family had been in Bryan to witness Brewer's trial, she said "it's been a long time. It's been a long time. I've aged. It's taken its toll on all of us."

TDCJ officials say Brewer was calm throughout his last day. A massive final meal was requested and received by the inmate two hours before he died, including chicken fried steaks, a pound of barbecue, fajitas, okra, pizza, ice cream and fudge. He ate none of it when it came to him, according to TDCJ.

Brewer was taken from his holding cell in Huntsville and strapped to the gurney in the death chamber at 6:02 p.m. Two minutes later, the solution began flowing into his arms, covered in tattoos including Confederate imagery and a burning cross. He was asked if he wanted to give a final statement at 6:11 p.m., but only said, "No, I have no final statement." The lethal dose was completed at 6:16 p.m. Five minutes later, he was pronounced dead.

One of Brewer's accomplices, John William King, was also sentenced to death, but his case is being appealed. The third man involved, Shawn Berry, received a life sentence.