Yesterday, the prison system in Texas abolished the well-known tradition that death row inmates get a last meal request, replacing it with standard prison food. Back in 1998, white supremacist Lawrence Brewer killed James Byrd Jr., and was put to death on Wednesday. He requested a gluttonous, opulent meal for his last meal, consisting of a triple meat bacon cheeseburger, two chicken-fried steaks, a cheese omelet, a bowl of okra with ketchup, three fajitas, a pound of barbecue with half a loaf of white bread, a pint of ice cream, peanut butter fudge, and a meat lover’s pizza. When his meal arrived, he rejected it, claiming that he wasn’t hungry.
Seemingly, this prompted State Senator John Whitmire to write a letter to prison officials threatening that legislation would be enacted if the tradition of last meals wasn’t put to an end. Executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Brad Livingston, agreed with Whitmire, and said the tradition would be put to an end, replacing the fancy last meals with regular prison food.
Whitmire’s letter stated “Enough is enough,”
“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.”
Livingston feels that death row prisoners should be served the same food as other offenders, a somewhat difficult statement to argue without getting into the humanity of it all. Generally, states fulfill the last meal requests, though some states force the prisoners to choose off of a menu, rather than make whatever request they wish.
Brian Evans of Amnesty International finds that the revocation of the last meal requests to be a little trivial, and rather, is focused on the fact that the prisoners are actually being put to death.
“It’s a minor thing compared with the fact that they are killing him. The cruelty of the whole process is much larger than whether you get to pick the last meal that you eat.”
Death meal requests have not breached into the extremely fancy territory, and prison officials say they have been routine, but large, also noting that ribs, enchiladas and ice cream are common requests. Prisons aren’t actually required to fulfill the requests, but they do have to provide it if similar ingredients happen to be available at the prison. Inmates do request some racier things, like alcohol and illegal drugs, but those requests are denied.
(story via Reuters, The Houston Chronicle, title pic of Jiko’s coffee barbecue chicken flatbread via The DVC Mom)
