james byrd died in jasper, texas, in june 1998. four months after james byrd died, two young men named aaron mckinney and russell henderson went to the fireside lounge in downtown laramie, wyoming, and in that bar they picked up a 21-year-old college student named matthew. they drove him out of town in their pickup truck. they tied him to the fence in a middle of a field and tortured him to death. 18 hours after he was left there, he was found by a passing cyclist who initially thought he was a scare crow. he was a young man in a coma by then who would never regain consciousness and died in the hospital five days later. >> it was a gruesome discovery at this fence late wednesday afternoon as the sun was setting, two bicyclists approached and at first they said they looked like a scarecrow had been tied to the fence. the lifeless body of 21-year-old matthew shepard, a university of miami freshman, a gay man barely alive tonight, in a coma, on