Excerpt: **"For those on death row, it is the last thing they have left to look forward to.
"But inmates in Texas will no longer be allowed to choose their final meal, after a convicted murderer ordered a massive multi-course dinner.
“Lawrence Brewer, who was executed on Wednesday, asked for two chicken steaks, a triple bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, three fajitas, a pizza, a pint of ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. He reportedly refused to eat any of the feast once it was delivered.”**
A final “Fuck you!” to the system, but yes, a typical case of one guy spoiling it for the others.
EDIT: Weren’t there some pizza commercials one time … Pizza Hut maybe? … that showed Death Row inmates ordering the company’s product for their last meal? And they were pulled for being in poor taste?
Nah. They were looking for a reason to get rid of the final meal requests. As I recall (and it may be in that article, I didn’t re-read it), a local restaurant owner offered to fill the requests for free and he was turned down.
I’m sure I recently saw the death row prisoner in some show (The Killing, maybe) say that most prisoners don’t eat their last meals so the cooks and/or guards get to enjoy it. It that’s true, I’d ask for something heinous like fish in velveeta sauce to stick it to The Man one last time!
“I’d ask for a McRib and a Shamrock Shake. They almost never have both of those things at the same limited time”
(one of my favorite lines from Raising Hope)
I understand that they’re not flying in truffles, but would a compassionate staff member be allowed to bring me Chinese takeout or some other reasonable local thing?
To actually answer the OP with the understanding I’ve gained in this thread - I’m torn between a big breakfast (eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, biscuits and gravy) or a loaded baked potato.
Then I read all the posts that say “who could eat?” and I get that. But if we’re thinking about it in such a realistic way - how would I end up on death row? And that short circuits my brain.
The Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester OK allows inmates on death row a final meal. However they aren’t allowed to go crazy with their request. The cost of the meal cannot exceed $15 and must be selected from from a local McAlester restaurant. http://www.okmag.com/January-2013/The-Long-Last-Walk/
EDIT: Weren’t there some pizza commercials one time … Pizza Hut maybe? … that showed Death Row inmates ordering the company’s product for their last meal? And they were pulled for being in poor taste?
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Don’t remember the exact commercial but pizza (both Pizza Hut and Domino’s) is a frequent request.
Yes and not exactly. As you say, it really doesn’t make a difference to anybody if the meal is eaten or thrown away. Nobody was looking to end the policy for the almost 100 years that it was in place, and certainly nobody in the kitchen at the relatively small prison unit that the executions take place in cared. A pretty good portion of last meals go untouched anyway, as something about impending execution tends to put people off of their food. Brewer’s trip from death row to the death chamber (different places in Texas), escorted by a phalanx of DPS Troopers and Texas Rangers in cruisers, was reportedly pretty fast and bumpy due to concerns that white supremacist gangs might make trouble en route. By the time he got to the unit there’s a good chance he was too nauseous to eat the food he had previously asked for, due to the ride and the fact that he was about to die on a gurney (or he may have been just being a dick). Untouched last meals are nothing new, but Brewer was well known for the dragging murder of James Byrd and his huge untouched meal request (“two chicken steaks, a triple bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, three fajitas, a pizza, a pint of ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts”) made the news, and nobody likes being in the news. Media uproar over wasting food, people complained angrily to politicians, politicians called on the director of the prison system to end the practice based on their “long opposition” to it, and no more last meals.