It has long been a tradition to give a dying man his last requests for dinner. Lawrence Brewer took that request to an extreme, ordering a meal fit for an entire cellblock. That produced a backlash from state Senator John Whitmire who demanded an end to the tradition in Texas. He succeeded and now death row inmates will simply get whatever is served that night at the prison.
“Enough is enough,” Whitmire insisted, “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 was a man below contempt to be sure. The white supremacist was convicted in the notorious 1998 killing in which James Byrd Jr., a black man, was dragged behind a truck for several miles.
However, the tradition of the last meal has long represented an element of mercy in the application of the death penalty. I must admit that I was taken aback by the account of what Brewer ordered when I first read: two chicken fried steaks, a triple meat bacon cheeseburger, a cheese omelet, a large bowl of fried okra, three fajitas, a pint of Blue Bell ice cream, and a pound of barbecue with a half loaf of white bread. However, the value of such a meal is likely less than $20 at a prison facility. In states like Florida, such meals are limited to a maximum value of $40.
The last meal offers a small modicum of comfort to someone about to be executed. Some believe the last meal reflects the last supper of Christ while others trace back the tradition to an expression of reconciliation of the condemned (by accepting the meal he forgives the executioner or state). Others believed it quieted the soul of the condemned and prevented him from returning as a ghost.
Whatever the reason, this is one of the longest standing tradition in the world. It is not a reflection of a sense of guilt for the execution but of a sense of mercy of society. Even the Israelis gave Adolf Eichmann a final wish for the meal (he asked for a red wine). It has been recognized as a gesture of mercy for centuries of condemned people from Ancient Greece to present time, but no longer in Texas.
Brad Livingston right), executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, issued this statement in response to Whitmire (left): “I believe Senator Whitmire’s concerns regarding the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their last meal are valid. Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made. They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit.”
It is a gratuitous act of denial by the state that deprives a condemned man a small measure of comfort before an execution.
Update: A former prison chef as offered to make last meals for free to preserve this tradition. Despite this commendable offer, the decision appears more based on retributionist and budgetary concerns.
Source: Chronicle
“The state by itself is incapable of feeling anything. It may be some of the people here or maybe it’s the people that don’t belong here.’
Meanin Well,
Is that a koan?
I hope the state ends its tradition of executing innocent people.
“Texas has become an increasingly mean state”
The state by itself is incapable of feeling anything. It may be some of the people here or maybe it’s the people that don’t belong here.
“Why must folks in power be so damn mean-spirited?”
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
MASkeptic
1, September 23, 2011 at 10:30 am
Chip, chip, chip away until nothing is left but a bullet behind the courthouse.
And bill the family for the bullet.
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-dept-criminal-justice/death-penalty/whitmire-tdcj-end-last-meal-feast-executions/ The head of the Texas Civil Rights Project who is opposed to the death penalty as I am supports the decision.
I think this is what pissed those folks off….
HOUSTON: Texan death-row inmates will no longer get their choice of last meals, after the menu request of a man condemned for a hate-crime slaying left a bad taste in the mouth of a prominent senator.
Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed on Wednesday, asked for two chicken-fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound (450 grams) of barbecued meat, three fajitas, a meat lover’s pizza, a pint (nearly half a litre) of ice-cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.
Prison officials said Brewer did not eat any of it.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/killers-excessive-order-ends-texass-last-request-meals-20110923-1kp94.html#ixzz1YmyQX6Ll
“Why must folks in power be so damn mean-spirited?”
Mespo,
As long as humanity persists with phony notions of manhood macho, you will see people professing this kind of mean spiritedness. After all aren’t we professing to be representing civilization when we pass criminal laws, catch offenders, prosecute them and carry out their sentences.
To my mind I would expect being civilized to mean that we are in general far more humane than the criminal. Providing someone with a last meal request is but an indicator that society is at a level of morality beyond the condemned. However, there has always been a persistent strain in male-dominated society that promotes “tough-mindedness” as an indication of a man’s power. Both liberal and conservative men (and women to a lesser degree) are infused with this underlying assumption that calls for proving ones manhood through acting “tough”.
Whitmire is just playing to the crowd by magnifying this really insignificant
request into a pious drawing of a line. I imagine it plays well in Texas where men are men and women have bouffant hairdo’s. To me the humanity of a society should always be measured by their treatment of all human beings. Macho mentality always seems to drag us all down to the basic level of the savanna, despite our pretensions of having evolved beyond our predatory genetic heritage.
Regardless of one’s views of Sen. Whitmire, his reaction in this instance was petulant and immature. Were he a teacher, would he make the entire class remain after school until the culprit who stole the eraser confessed?
Actually Sen. Whitmire has a fine character and if I lived in his district I would be proud to vote for him since he is a liberal Democrat. I guess that the condemned should also be allowed to put off the execution until he finishes the meal too? It would be a back door way to end the penalty.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/texas-last-meal-deathrow-john-whitmire-brewer It is mean spirited but the white supremist ate none of the food. Better to gid rid of the death penalty than the meal. Texas has become an increasingly mean spirited state.
“Why must folks in power be so damn mean-spirited?” -mespo
…the million dollar question…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15034970
Excerpt:
Most US states have a last meal tradition but differ in its implementation. Some have a menu, others, like Florida, impose a cost restriction.
Some requests have been unusual.
In 2007, Philip Workman asked for his vegetarian pizza to be given to a homeless person. The request was denied.
James Edward Smith’s request for “a lump of dirt” in 1990 was also turned down.
In 2000, Odell Barnes asked for “justice, equality and world peace”. (end excerpt)
And Troy Davis fasted — he refused his last meal. This is about power
Chip, chip, chip away until nothing is left but a bullet behind the courthouse.
But Texas executes so many prisoners that, over time, letting them eat $20 worth of food at one sitting could bankrupt the state.
On checking Wikipedia, I find that, here on the Left Coast, states execute, on average, one prisoner every couple of years. That other states execute hundreds of people/year horrifies me, and strengthens my resolve to continue to live within an hour’s drive of the Pacific.
What’s worse for the citizens as a whole? A sadistic killer or an compassionless government. Limit the dollar amount of the meal request and let it go. Why must folks in power be so damn mean-spirited? Whitmire’s a Democrat and an attorney, so acridity knows no party nor profession.
It’s not even about mercy for the condemned . . . it’s mostly about the mental health and emotional well-being of the executioners, those following along side the dead man walking. Gussy it up with talk of righteous wrath, justice for the victim, closure for the family, or sanitize it with standard protocols, formal courtesy, solemn processions . . . cold-blooded killing of another human being is barbaric and takes its toll on even the most jaded lynch man. The veneer of civility or small acts of “mercy” are but recognition of the extreme devaluation of human life by the state and, yes, by the executed, and as such serve as a psychological assist to the executioners not to devalue their own humanity.
Small acts of kindness reveal the nature of the actor rather than the recipient’s, and now we know Sen. Whitmire’s.
Considering a death penalty case is more expensive than life in prison, if Texas wants to save money then do away with capital punishment. $100 bucks isnt going to break the prison system’s wallet.
Although the Senator makes a good point, James Byrd didnt get a last meal from those 2 goons.
Hush, Frankly! You don’t want to confuse those poor Texans with things like numbers and facts. After all, they’ve got a Hair Doo they’re trying to pawn off on the rest of us . . .
But TX whacked 17 people last year IIRC. At $40 a pop this wonderful man saved the 24.8 million people of that bedraggled state a whopping $680!!!
Think of it, that works out to .000027 cents per citizen – Eureka! The State is saved & the budget can be balanced for ever and ever. It probably cost the state 10 times that much to get this thing passed.