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A federal appeals court says they do and, taken in context with his other white supremacist statements, made it impossible for his attorneys to argue that King didn鈥檛 have racist intent when he killed a black man.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans cited the tattoos and their meaning among the reasons for upholding the conviction and death sentence of the 43-year-old King in the dragging death of 49-year-old James Byrd in June 1998.

The 25-page decision, authored by , dismissed all of John King鈥檚 arguments about the effectiveness of his attorneys at trial and for not doing more to downplay his ties to racists groups and statements.

In the appeal, John King criticized his attorneys for not pushing the theory that his tattoos were merely a way of adapting and surviving in prison, not signs of racial animus.

Judge King, joined by and , noted that King was part of a white supremacist prison gang and wrote about the desire to expand the gang and even drew pictures of racial lynching.

鈥淭he state鈥檚 case that King harbored violent and white supremacist views was multifaceted and ironclad,鈥� Judge King wrote. 鈥淣o matter how skillful they were, counsel could not make this evidence go away.鈥�

Byrd died after being dragged behind a truck for three miles on an asphalt road near Jasper, Texas. Investigators said Byrd remained conscious throughout much of the incident and died when his body hit the edge of a culvert, decapitating him and severing his right arm.

One co-defendant, , was executed in Texas on September 21, 2011.

King remains on death row. A third co-defendant, , was sentenced to life in prison.

Byrd鈥檚 death led to the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009.

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