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Texas had its fill of death row last meals
Source: Agencies |
September 24, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE prison system in Texas in the United States has abolished the time-honored tradition of offering an opulent last meal to condemned inmates before their executions, saying they would get standard prison fare instead.
"Enough is enough," state Senator John Whitmire wrote on Thursday to prison officials. "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."
The letter was in apparent response to the dinner requested, but not eaten, by white supremacist Lawrence Brewer before he was put to death on Wednesday night for a 1998 killing in which James Byrd Jr, a black man, was dragged behind a truck for several miles.
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, half a loaf of bread, peanut butter fudge, a pint of ice cream and two chicken-fried steaks.
When the meal arrived at Brewer's cell, he declined it, saying he was not hungry.
Whitmire, who chairs the Texas Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, threatened legislation if the prison system did not end the practice.
Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, replied that the practice would halt immediately.
Anti-death penalty activists were not bothered by the move, saying the tradition always made the prison system look more merciful than it is.
"I don't understand the logic of a last meal, and the way it's turned into such a show," said Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project.
"Enough is enough," state Senator John Whitmire wrote on Thursday to prison officials. "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."
The letter was in apparent response to the dinner requested, but not eaten, by white supremacist Lawrence Brewer before he was put to death on Wednesday night for a 1998 killing in which James Byrd Jr, a black man, was dragged behind a truck for several miles.
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, half a loaf of bread, peanut butter fudge, a pint of ice cream and two chicken-fried steaks.
When the meal arrived at Brewer's cell, he declined it, saying he was not hungry.
Whitmire, who chairs the Texas Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, threatened legislation if the prison system did not end the practice.
Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, replied that the practice would halt immediately.
Anti-death penalty activists were not bothered by the move, saying the tradition always made the prison system look more merciful than it is.
"I don't understand the logic of a last meal, and the way it's turned into such a show," said Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project.
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