# Final meals **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 12, 2009, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291 "2009-11-12T06:46:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![copperwindow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@copperwindow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/copperwindow)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/1 "2009-11-12T06:46:22Z")
Why do we give people who are about to be executed a final meal? It seems like a waste of money to go out of are way to provide someone with a meal that they won’t have time to fully digest. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/2 "2009-11-12T06:54:52Z")
Just civility. It’s one of those “the least we can do” things. There is usually a ceiling on the meal- a fairly low one in fact. (In Alabama I think it’s $20, though if the family wants to bring in caterers with fresh lobsters and demi glace they would perhaps let them subject to reasonable regulations.) It’s interesting that John Allen Muhammad specifically asked that the details of his[last meal not be made known](http://www.examiner.com/x-23328-True-Crime-Examiner~y2009m11d10-Update-DC-Snipers-last-meal-to-remain-secret-12-to-witness-execution). Makes me wonder if it was pork chops and liquor or something else forbidden by Islam. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/3 "2009-11-12T06:58:10Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Makes me wonder if it was pork chops and liquor or something else forbidden by Islam. Alcohol is normally banned anyway. In Virginia they’re [only allowed to choose from the normal menu.](http://www.slate.com/id/2235155/?from=rss) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/4 "2009-11-12T07:08:56Z")
> [@copperwindow](#): > > It seems like a waste of money to go out of are way to provide someone with a meal that they won’t have time to fully digest. The point is to let them taste the food. Digesting it isn’t really important, seeing as how they are going to die in a few hours and don’t really need the nutrition. > [@Sampiro](#): > > It’s interesting that John Allen Muhammad specifically asked that the details of his[last meal not be made known](http://www.examiner.com/x-23328-True-Crime-Examiner~y2009m11d10-Update-DC-Snipers-last-meal-to-remain-secret-12-to-witness-execution). Makes me wonder if it was pork chops and liquor or something else forbidden by Islam. Muhammad didn’t let the state of Virginia announce his last meal, [but his lawyer told the press anyway:](http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sniper11-2009nov11,0,5307431.story) > [@](#): > > During the day, Muhammad met with members of his family, including an adult son. For his last meal he ate chicken with red sauce and cake, Gordon said. So I think he was just refusing to participate in some of the odd rigmarole associated with being put to death. He also did not make a last statement before being executed. For all the other crazy things he did, I can understand that. It’s a little bizarre that we publicize the last meals of people who are being executed. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/5 "2009-11-12T07:20:55Z")
If you get down to it, most things we do are a waste of money. Why build roads when we could walk? Why feed school children real meals when we could just feed them gruel? Why have chairs in the waiting room of the DMV? The last meal has a long history behind it. According to [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_meal) the Greeks, Chinese and Romans all gave last meals (Jesus, IIRC, had a quite famous one.) According to the article, eating the last meal acted as a symbolic acceptance of the sentence. On a practical level, it made prisoners more likely to be compliant with the execution procedures. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/6 "2009-11-12T13:32:34Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > The last meal has a long history behind it. According to [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_meal) the Greeks, Chinese and Romans all gave last meals (Jesus, IIRC, had a quite famous one.) If you’re referring to the Last Supper, that occurred prior to Jesus’s arrest. I don’t believe it’s specified how long he was detained between then and his execution; quite probably it was long enough for him to have been fed a few more times. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/7 "2009-11-12T18:07:29Z")
Well, symbolically and mythologically, the last supper plays an important role in our culture. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/8 "2009-11-12T23:55:22Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Well, symbolically and mythologically, the last supper plays an important role in our culture. Of course. I’m just saying that the Last Supper isn’t a “final meal” in the sense used in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/9 "2009-11-12T23:59:50Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Alcohol is normally banned anyway. In Virginia they’re [only allowed to choose from the normal menu.](http://www.slate.com/id/2235155/?from=rss) You are right about the typical booze ban for a final meal, but I could swear that I read (years back) that there is a state that allowed a condemmed man a single cold beer a couple of hours before he was taken down… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/10 "2009-11-13T02:58:40Z")
To the OP, how could we not give the condemned a last meal? If there weren’t a meal the day of the execution, then supper of the previous day would be the last meal instead, and so on. And it’d probably get just as much publicity associated with it. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/11 "2009-11-13T03:19:00Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > If you get down to it, most things we do are a waste of money. Why build roads when we could walk? Why feed school children real meals when we could just feed them gruel? Why have chairs in the waiting room of the DMV? OK, you just fucked with my perception of reality. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/12 "2009-11-13T04:42:01Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Why build roads when we could walk?.. Why have chairs in the waiting room of the DMV? People are probably tired from walking to the DMV. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-meals/517291/13 "2009-11-13T05:21:54Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > People are probably tired from walking to the DMV. There will also be far fewer people waiting at the DMV in our new roadless society.