Texas to stop allowing condemned to choose last meals.

[TheMightyFavog]

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/22/140723826/texas-prisons-end-special-last-meals-in-executions?ft=1&f=1001&sc=tw&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Texas inmates who are set to be executed will no longer get their choice of last meals, a change prison officials made Thursday after a prominent state senator became miffed over an expansive request from a man condemned for a notorious dragging death.

Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed Wednesday for the hate crime slaying of James Byrd Jr. more than a decade ago, asked for two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. Prison officials said Brewer didn't eat any of it.

"It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege," Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote in a letter Thursday to Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Within hours, Livingston said the senator's concerns were valid and the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their final meal was history.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

1. Gotta save money somehow

:wow:

[Shagbark Hickory]

2. I agree. They don't deserve it. Nor do they deserve to get out of their sentence by dying.

[sharp_stick]

3. Oh boy that'll teach em'

Why does Texas always have to lead the stupid parade in this country?

[Vincardog]

4. I have an idea. The TX GOP can eat me. When they are done they can have a desert bowl of santorum

[tammywammy]

5. John Whitmire is a democrat. n/t

[Dreamer Tatum]

6. Oopsie. nt

[tammywammy]

8. And he's right, James Byrd didn't get a choice for a last meal before he was chained to the back of

a truck and dragged until he was decapitated.

[Joe the Revelator]

11. James Byrd also wasn't being killed by the state.

[Matariki]

16. +1

[lunatica]

30. Thank you!

[Dreamer Tatum]

45. The state owes me a meal? I'll be there before dinner. Have my table waiting. nt

[spanone]

7. maybe they should piss on them when they put in the kill needle too?

:sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[PA Democrat]

9. What next? Allowing angry teabaggers to bludgeon

people to death because clubs are cheaper than the drugs and medical equipment used for a lethal injection?

[MarianJack]

15. Or Maybe...

...stoning to death?

[Joe the Revelator]

10. Even the darkest of times allowed the condemned a last smoke or meal...

Things are crazy right now.

[tammywammy]

12. They'll be fed what the regular prisoners are eating. n/t

[Matariki]

18. forget it.

not worth it.

[Joe the Revelator]

22. And then killed by the state...just like any other normal day.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

32. Allowing a last smoke would be politically incorrect

Smoking is dangerous to one's health.

[marshall]

41. They no longer get a choice

Presumably they will at least get something.

[GreenStormCloud]

13. I read somewhere that the last meal is laced with sedatives.

The idea is that it will be a food that the condemned likes and so will eat it and be easy to manage as he is taken to executation.

I could be wrong.

I see nothing wrong with just serving regular prison fare.

[customerserviceguy]

14. When you hear about the menus the inmates order

You have to wonder why this practice has continued. It's a giant slap in the face of a murder victim's family.

[uncle ray]

23. don't kill em. problem solved.

curious that the last few hundred is what offends you, after the state spends a half million to kill him.

[customerserviceguy]

25. The state wouldn't have to spend half a million

if the anti-DP'ers would just let justice be done.

[PA Democrat]

33. Are you serious?

Make it easier to execute people when it has been proven that there are many innocent people on death row? How many innocent people are you willing to kill in the name of saving a buck?

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row

[Horse with no Name]

48. $2.3 million to try a DP case.

THREE times more than incarcerating someone for life...just to satisfy the blood lust of those than INSIST on barbaric punishments.

[Joe the Revelator]

24. Because they get to eat food they like before they die? That's a slap in the face?

[customerserviceguy]

26. Yes

It causes the victim's family to reflect on the fact that the victim's last meal might have been some Kraft mac and cheese. Not a nice steak dinner, or something pleasurable like that.

[Joe the Revelator]

27. Capital punishment never set out to recreate the victims death....and...

...to view it through that prism is misguided.

[customerserviceguy]

28. You're right

and while the officials carrying out the sentence shouldn't view it that way, I'm talking about how the victim's family views it. I expect them to be a bit more passionate about the subject than the courts and the prison system.

Still, this asshat ordered all this fancy shit, and didn't eat a bite of it. A regular prison meal as the last meal is good enough, and this racist bastard taught us that.

[Joe the Revelator]

37. I'm not sure a burger and a pizza is all that fancy

[customerserviceguy]

47. If it were only that

How does "two chicken fried steaks smothered in gravy with sliced onions, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, a cheese omelet with other ingredients, a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup, three fajitas, a pint of Blue Bell ice cream, a pound of barbecue with a half-loaf of white bread, a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts, a pizza and three root beers," grab you?

Also, he didn't eat a bite of it.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-22/justice/justice_texas-last-meal_1_texas-inmate-death-row-meal?_s=PM:JUSTICE

[Joe the Revelator]

49. So what? That's 30 dollars worth of food, before the state kills him...

He could order 100 dollar surf and turf and it would still be 1000 times less than the cost of an execution.

[customerserviceguy]

50. If the people who oppose any DP

no matter how heinous the crime, or how incredibly f---ing guilty the convicted are would just get the hell out of the way every once in awhile, executions would be somewhat cost-effective. Of course, that's the point, isn't it?

[Joe the Revelator]

51. I'm not going to apologize or get ' out of the way', so those that want to...

...perpetrate some bullshit idea of revenge or get their rocks off on 'feel good' murder can do it more cost effectively.

[customerserviceguy]

52. I know

I would not expect the anti-DP people to use any bit of common sense when it comes to figuring out that a white man can get a fair trial and verdict for killing a black man in Texas. Hence, you see the extreme counter-reaction of those who cheered Rick Perry on at the debates when his state's executions are brought up as a topic.

You want to figure out why that response happens? It's because those who are for a DP have to fight like hell, at extremely high cost, to get one performed. We value the rights of victims enough to do this, however.

[Blue_Tires]

38. give the food to someone else in prison...problem solved...

[LanternWaste]

55. what particular ethic mandates the condemned individual be given any meal at all...?

"and this racist bastard taught us that..."

Following that line of though, one may wonder what particular ethical mandate compels us that the condemned individual be given any meal at all...?

[LanternWaste]

53. I have a difficult time perceiving a custom meal as a slap to my face.

I have a difficult time perceiving a custom meal as a slap to my face (yes-- family member of murder victim). :shrug:

But then again, other people often tell me what or how I should feel about a thing. I often, as in this case, allow it all the merit it warrants.

[Matariki]

17. People aren't going to be happy until executions involve pain and humiliation

and are shown on television. And a last meal of broken glass and feces.

We're a sad, broken nation in so many respects.

[rfranklin]

19. Many of those so inclined seem to be right here...

Bloodlust is so right wing.

[Matariki]

20. Indeed. In this very thread.

'jesus wept' and all that.

[Obamanaut]

31. Execution for a heinous crime is a *punishment*, just as a period of

incarceration for a less heinous crime (burglary, for example) is a *punishment*.

Here's a thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1989326&mesg_id=1989326 that talks about a guy who killed several members of a family - even two kids - because of a possible testimony against him because of an arson charge.

That dead family did not get a 'last meal request', not even the 10 year old boy or teenage girl. No prom, no homecoming dance, no more birthday parties, nothing.

[TheKentuckian]

34. There is nothing admirable about being vengeful, certainly being petty isn't going to help.

I think less and less of the death penalty Superfriends by the moment. If you folk somehow remain any better than what you hate it will be a minor miracle. Hell, it isn't like your blood lust hasn't resulted in cold blooded murder of innocents and then worse demand to share your guilt with the entire society.

You guys "need" somebody dead? Fucking grow a pair and do your dirt your self and have it on your own distorted souls. I resent the whole train of thought.

[Obamanaut]

35. 'Vengeance' by the aggrieved and 'punishment' via the legal

system for a crime are not the same thing.

Why, exactly, should a person who slays five people, including two children, not be executed as 'punishment' for his deed?

You don't like people who hold this belief? I'll survive.

[Matariki]

46. Proponents of the Death Penalty seem far more focused on vengeance and bloodlust.

as evidenced by the cheering at the Republican debate for the high number of executions in Rick Perry's state.

It's ugly. And you fail to address the travesty of justice in executing innocent people.

[TheKentuckian]

56. Because a state should not be in the business killing its citizens in cold blood

because the innocent are murdered along with the guilty in our far from perfect system, because it robs us of our humanity and regresses us as a society, and because many deserve life and we cannot give it to them so it would seem most right to keep that in mind when we are so quick to give out death.

You want someone dead then put it on your own shriveled soul instead of sharing your guilt with all of us.

[Doremus]

36. So you're saying the State should conduct itself no better than the murderer.

Next we'll be advocating for an exact re-creation of the original murder.

"If it was good enough for the victims it's good enough for the murderer!"

That's the logical progression of your original assertion that the State deny the traditional last meal. Such pettiness offers little satisfaction for those intent on revenge. A good bloodletting ... now that's something a lot of people would ecstatically endorse the State engage in.

Instant shivers at the mere thought.

[Matariki]

44. Life in prison with no hope for parole is *punishment*

In my opinion a worse one. No more control over one's life, what/when to eat, going outdoors, going to a beach, going to a restaurant, hanging out with friends. None of that. Ever.

AND if the person is actually innocent they may get the chance to clear their name.

[Blue_Tires]

39. To prove a point we should surgically remove the half-digested food after execution...

Wait...Some legislator is gonna take me seriously on that, isn't he?

[raccoon]

42. You got that right....nt

[Lyric]

21. That's like paying $500 for a Twinkie and then bitching because extra cream costs another $1.

The death penalty is fucking EXPENSIVE. More expensive than life in prison. If they're willing to fork out the dough to murder people, then they can shut the hell up about the cost of someone's last meal.

[lunatica]

29. Always use the lowest common denominator

How dare a truly hate filled inmate order so much for his last meal? How fucking dare he?!!! Well we'll show him. After he's dead we'll get even. And we'll kill more of them with glee. So there! We just can't make them pay enough.

[raccoon]

40. Off to Greatest with you!

How incredibly petty of Whitmire and Livingston.

[DaveJ]

43. Presumably, this is to show we are compassionate, not mean spirited

Presumably, the last meal is for the executioners to feel better about themselves. Those who support execution can say it is done for the necessity of assuring the crime won't happening again.

Not because people are mean, angry, selfish, bitter.... yeah right. :rofl:

[dembotoz]

54. and for your last meal you get lima beans!!!! now death will be something to look forward to

[Posteritatis]

57. God, these discussions turn stupidly ugly quick. (nt)