By Jeff Franks Thursday September 23 3:00 PM ET

BRYAN, Texas (Reuters) - White supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer was condemned Thursday to die for dragging a black man to death in a race murder that stunned the nation.

A 12-member jury, none them black, deliberated more than 14 hours over two days before deciding that Brewer should be executed by lethal injection for killing James Byrd on June 7, 1998 near Jasper, Texas.

Brewer, 32, pursed his lips, but remained composed when state District Judge Monte Lawlis pronounced the sentence in a hushed courtroom. Members of his family wept quietly.

Brewer was the second of three defendants handed the death sentence in the case, which sparked a national outcry because of its brutality and similarities to Old South racist lynchings.

His jailhouse buddy John William King, 24, was condemned to die by a Jasper jury in February, while Shawn Berry, also 24, is scheduled for trial next month.

Prosecutors say the trio kidnapped Byrd, 49, chained him to a pickup truck and dragged him three miles (five km) along a country road until his head was ripped off. The killing was an attempt to attract attention to a nascent hate group, they said.

``This is not a happy moment, but it is a moment that we know ... justice has been served,'' said Don Clark, head of the Houston office of the FBI, which aided the investigation.

Prosecutor Pat Hardy said the jury's decision sent a clear message that hate crimes would not be tolerated.

``I think everybody, (Ku Klux) Klan or any white supremacist group gets to see that if you're going to do this kind of murder you better look at it coming back at you,'' he said.

The jury's verdict came shortly after Lawlis ordered them to continue deliberations after they sent out a note saying they were deadlocked on whether Brewer should die or go to prison for life -- their only sentencing options after convicting him Monday of capital murder.

None of the jurors would talk afterwards, but Jasper County District Attorney Guy James Gray said one man on the panel resisted sentencing Brewer to death. In the end, the right decision was made, Gray said.

``If you don't give the death penalty to this man, he will kill and hurt again,'' he said. ``We don't want him producing another Bill King.''

Prosecutors said King masterminded the Byrd murder, but that Brewer taught him his racist beliefs when they were in a Texas prison for minor crimes in the 1990s. Brewer was the ``Exalted Cyclops'' of a white supremacist jail gang called the Confederate Knights of America and King his devoted disciple, they said.

The two supposedly hatched a plan to start a hate group outside of prison, which resulted in the tragic death of Byrd, a disabled man from Jasper.

Byrd's sister, Mary Verrett, said the family was satisfied with the verdict.

``It was a fair case, a just sentence and we are very elated,'' she said.

Brewer testified last week that he did not participate in the murder and blamed it on Berry, who he said slashed Byrd's throat and chained him to his truck during a drug deal gone bad.

Tuesday, Brewer's distraught parents testified that he had been good son until he started using drugs at 14. They said he became a racist only after serving time in a Texas prison for burglary and drug charges.

``(They are) very good people. Our hearts go out to them, but, like we said to the King family, (we) do not blame them for what their son has done,'' Verrett said.