Texas Abolishes Last Meal Requests For Death Row Inmates

[one_voice]

The Texas prison system ended the tradition of offering death row inmates a last meal request, apparently in response to white supremacist Lawrence Brewer's particularly elaborate request before he was put to death Wednesday -- a meal that he then declined.

Houston state Senator John Whitmire (D), who chairs the Texas Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, wrote a letter to prison officials on Thursday demanding that they end the practice. "Enough is enough," he wrote. "It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege. It's a privilege which the perpetrator did not provide to their victim."

Brewer, a member of a white supremacist group, was convicted of chaining James Byrd Jr. to the back of a pickup truck and dragging him until he died.

Reuters reports:

Brewer requested an elaborate meal that included a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, a meat-lover's pizza, a big bowl of okra with ketchup, a pound of barbecue, a half a loaf of bread, peanut butter fudge, a pint of ice cream and two chicken-fried steaks.

*snip*

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/texas_abolishes_last_meal_requests_for_death_row_i.php

:eyes:

[tammywammy]

1. I thought there was a $50 limit on the last meal. n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. This is largely bullshit

Texas actually has an online database of all last meal requests and how they were handled. I read through a lot of it several years ago. A lot of the time, the prison simply claims to be unable to fulfill the request and gives the prisoner food from the cafeteria. So, you'll see stuff like "Requested 3 McDonald's cheeseburgers. Provided three cheeseburgers from prison kitchen." Or "Requested homemade apple pie. Provided apple tart from cafeteria."

The notion that the state is obligated, or even comes close to, providing the food requested is simply an outright lie. The evidence clearly shows that the state defaults to a convenient replacement whenever it damn well feels like it.

[tammywammy]

3. They stopped listing the last meals in 2003

According to this article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iGusb9uaYS2BI5woe7rxiUEElVKw?docId=29c580d6bb3f49fea92226d7e4269ae3

I'm surprised they actually gave the guy that much food. I don't think they need to stop the last meal, but they could enforce a limit on the amount - though I know it has to be made in their cafeteria already.

[GKirk]

4. I would like 3 passenger pigeon breasts...

...and a grilled T-Rex steak please.

[fishwax]

5. I guess there's always one who ruins it for everybody else

:eyes:

When your state already executes at the rate that Texas does, you have to go the extra mile to advance your capital punishment cred. (Even though, as another poster upthread said, the last meal requests were apparently mostly for show anyway.)