Last "last meal" served in Texas prison system

By: Melanie Yoes

With the controversial execution of Georgia inmate Troy Davis still stirring debate amongst the American public, recent changes to Texas’ capital punishment process have also drawn the country’s attention to the state.

The case of Troy Davis, 42, drew national attention when he was put to death Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied him a stay of execution after Davis exhausted his appeals. The case sparked outrage among many Americans opposed to his execution who felt that a lack of physical evidence linking Davis to the murder of Savannah police officer Mark Macphail in 1989 should have encouraged a more thorough investigation of the crime and his appeals to be further reviewed. Since Davis’ initial trial, several key eyewitnesses have recanted testimony linking him to the crime.

Also on Wednesday, Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisoner number 999327, Lawrence Russell Brewer, became the eleventh person executed in Texas this year in Huntsville. Brewer, 44, a white supremacist gang member, was sentenced to death row for the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd Jr., a black man, in Jasper, a racially-motivated murder that horrified the nation because of its brutality.

However, it is not Brewer’s execution that has sparked a controversy but rather the circumstances surrounding his last meal request. Brewer, like many other death row inmates before him, was granted a special final meal, a tradition that is thought to date back 87 years in Texas.

Brewer received a 9-course feast which included two chicken fried steaks, a meat lover’s pizza, an omelet, a triple meat bacon cheeseburger, one pound of barbeque, a large bowl of fried okra, three fajitas, a pint of ice cream, peanut butter fudge and three root beers, then refused to eat any of it, saying only that he wasn’t hungry.

Steven Woods Jr., who was executed in Huntsville on Sept. 13, also requested a large last meal, although he ate his. Woods was given a large pizza with bacon, sausage, pepperoni and hamburger, fried chicken breasts, chicken fried steak, hamburgers with bacon on French toast, garlic bread sticks, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer, sweet tea and ice cream.

In contrast, James Edward Smith, executed in 1990, requested as his final meal “a lump of dirt”, which the prison declined. He was instead given a small container of yogurt.

In a letter sent to prison officials Thursday addressing Brewer’s refusal of his last meal, state Senator John Whitmore described the tradition of offering an opulent last meal to condemned inmates as “extremely inappropriate” and called for an end to the privilege. Texas prisoners slated for execution will now only have the option to eat whatever meal the prison kitchen prepares for the rest of the inmates.

The state’s decision to end the practice has provoked a mixed response from the American public.

“I don’t believe they should get a last meal, period. In fact, don’t even tell prisoners what day they’re going to be executed,” said Quincy Mitchell, 45, who works as an analyst at Dell in Round Rock.

Charles Keene, 32, a tape backup advisor, shares a similar opinion. “I think when a person gives up their right to belong to humanity they also give up their human rights and privileges as well,” he said.

Amit Mittal, 36, a native Indian from New Delhi who has lived in Texas for the past 18 years, disagrees with the state’s decision.

“You should allow them a last meal, no matter what they did. To me they deserve at least that much, and as a human you shouldn’t deny them it. In India they even try to fulfill a last wish if it’s reasonable,” Mittal said.

Amelie Benedikt, a professor of ethics at Texas State University, also believes that denying prisoners the choice of a last meal is inhumane.

“The prisoner is still a rational, deciding human being. Even though they made a terrible mistake that voided their right to life and liberty, they are still human and one of the last choices they will ever get to make is the last meal choice. The idea of having a choice left to them keeps them feeling like a human being instead of like an animal,” Benedikt said.

Benedikt cited the philosophy of Immanual Kant, a strong supporter of capital punishment but proponent of the prisoner’s right to choose his or her last meal, as the basis for her beliefs, and feels that justice and human decency are the ultimate goals when an inmate is scheduled to die.

“You have to grant as much residual respect as possible to the individual that deserves the punishment. I would oppose getting rid of the last meal very strongly even if they didn’t touch it, even if they threw it across the room,” Benedikt said.

Brian Price, a former inmate and cook within the Texas prison system who prepared the final meals for over two hundred death row inmates, has volunteered to personally honor last meal requests at no cost to taxpayers. The Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice declined Price’s offer.

Texas has executed the most death row inmates in the nation, 475, since the death penalty was reinstated in the state in 1974. Only a handful of those put to death in Texas have declined to request a special final meal.