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No more last meal choices for death-row inmates
Chron.com ^ | 09-22-2011 | Peggy Fikac

Posted on 09/22/2011 1:46:21 PM PDT by Red Badger

Death-row inmates headed to their executions will no longer be able to pick what they’d like for their last meal.

Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, issued this statement in response to concerns from Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire:

“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.”

Here’s the original post about Whitmire’s concerns: Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, wants to end the practice of providing death-row inmates with whatever they’d like for their last meal.

Whitmire – in a Thursday letter to Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice — said he’s long been concerned about the practice and that the last straw was the Houston Chronicle’s report of Lawrence Russell Brewer ordering a huge last meal that he failed to eat.

The senator recounted Brewer’s order of 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, calling it “ridiculous.”

“I am asking that you end this practice immediately or I am prepared to do so by statute next session,” Whitmire wrote. “Death row inmates before execution should be fed the same meal as any other inmate on the unit the day of the scheduled execution.”

I’ve emailed TDCJ’s spokeswoman to ask for a comment.

(Excerpt) Read more at blog.chron.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: deathpenalty; deathrow; execution; lastmeal; prison
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Eating like that could be bad for your health.........
1 posted on 09/22/2011 1:46:32 PM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

geze come ON! you know we’ve become barbarians now.


2 posted on 09/22/2011 1:47:36 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (...then they came for the guitars, and we kicked their sorry faggot asses into the dust)
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To: Red Badger

Yeah, one guy spoils it all for everybody else.


3 posted on 09/22/2011 1:48:24 PM PDT by dblshot (Insanity: electing the same people over and over and expecting different results.)
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To: Red Badger
No more last meal choices for death-row inmates

Good. They can eat a steaming plate of dog excrement for all I care.

4 posted on 09/22/2011 1:48:35 PM PDT by SIDENET ("If that's your best, your best won't do." -Dee Snider)
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To: Red Badger
Hey, we don't let death row inmates smoke because of health concerns. ;)

/johnny

5 posted on 09/22/2011 1:48:51 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Red Badger

And the cost of that last meal was what $100-$200-$300?

Compared to (1) the cost to try and convict someone of murder, and (2) the cost of the bad publicity from breaking a longstanding tradition of allowing a condemed person to request their last meal, it seems cheaper to just let the practice continue.


6 posted on 09/22/2011 1:51:51 PM PDT by Brookhaven
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To: Red Badger
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,

"Are you up to the Death Row Challenge?"


7 posted on 09/22/2011 1:53:00 PM PDT by SIDENET ("If that's your best, your best won't do." -Dee Snider)
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To: Brookhaven
Did you read this part?:

Lawrence Russell Brewer ordering a huge last meal that he failed to eat.

8 posted on 09/22/2011 1:53:45 PM PDT by Red Badger ("Treason doth never prosper.... What's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.")
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To: Red Badger

Can they still get a cigarette and a blindfold?


9 posted on 09/22/2011 1:55:04 PM PDT by Martin Tell (ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it)
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To: Red Badger

The senator recounted Brewer’s order of 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, calling it “ridiculous.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You know, I wouldn’t really have a problem with the cost of preparing such a feast if only it was done less than a year after sentencing.

The very idea that Texas and other states are keeping these killers on death row for years and even decades is what is appalling.


10 posted on 09/22/2011 1:55:20 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS! This means liberals AND libertarians (same thing) NO LIBS!)
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To: Red Badger

The senator recounted Brewer’s order of 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, calling it “ridiculous.”


Sounds very Texan not to mention multicultural to me.

Put some gravy on that sumbitch!


11 posted on 09/22/2011 1:55:28 PM PDT by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: Red Badger

One extreme action leads to another extreme reaction. Sheesh.

Have some mercy and grant a dying man’s wish. (Yes, within reason, of course.) It’s good for us all.


12 posted on 09/22/2011 1:55:58 PM PDT by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: Red Badger


13 posted on 09/22/2011 1:56:26 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: Martin Tell

No smoking. Might get sick and die.......


14 posted on 09/22/2011 1:56:59 PM PDT by Red Badger ("Treason doth never prosper.... What's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.")
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To: JRandomFreeper
The use to let them smoke

15 posted on 09/22/2011 1:57:15 PM PDT by Kartographer (".. we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.")
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To: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten

Sounds very Texan not to mention multicultural to me.

Put some gravy on that sumbitch!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As a Texasn I wanna know....

Brown gravy or cream?


16 posted on 09/22/2011 1:57:35 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS! This means liberals AND libertarians (same thing) NO LIBS!)
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To: JoeProBono

Those meals are clearly dangerous! Both of those guys died soon after eating them.


17 posted on 09/22/2011 1:58:40 PM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I've tried to think like a liberal, but I can't get my head far enough up my behind...)
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To: Brookhaven
Correct. At the very least, I'd still grant the request to the perps who waived their rights to endless appeals and accepted the fast track to the needle and gurney.

I'd even allow a token cash payment to their next of kin for some of the money saved. Not that they deserve it, but because it would make libtards scream even louder.

18 posted on 09/22/2011 1:58:40 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: JRandomFreeper

This kind of indulgence to the condemned is a virtually universal practice in Westernized countries. Even this “wasted” meal as listed should have cost less than $100. If they are so worried about others wasting theirs, I’d suggest having the prisoner’s family pay for it, and/or if the prisoner has a prison job (is this done for death row?), from the prisoner’s savings. What the prisoner does not eat would go to the prisoner’s family.

Why not hang or execute condemned people at noon on TV? This would make more sense than petty repudiation of a long standing Westernized practice.


19 posted on 09/22/2011 1:59:14 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (There's gonna be a Redneck Revolution! (See my freep page) [rednecks come in many colors])
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To: JRandomFreeper

Moochelle should have stepped in and stopped this due to the fat content.


20 posted on 09/22/2011 1:59:50 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB (See ya later, debt inflator ! Gone in 4 (2012))
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