If It Were Your Last Meal on Earth

[elyse]

Right. Nor was it the date of the crime.

[indiagirl]

details of the birthday cake request

Chocolate birthday cake with "2/23/90" written on top, seven pink candles, one coconut, kiwi fruit juice, pineapple juice, one mango, grapes, lettuce, cottage cheese, peaches, one banana, one delicious apple, chef salad without meat and with thousand island dressing, fruit salad, cheese, and tomato slices

this site, these meals, have stayed with me for a disturbingly long time. i revisited the site when i started this thread and two names had been added since my first visit.

i make up stories about the lives hidden behind these meals. it's macabre, bizzare i know. i find myself wondering about these men (most of them are). was that his kids birthday? had he promised her (?) a birthday cake with pink candles and found himself in prison, unable to?

i find myself judging them based on their meals. that is truly bizzare. can a murderer really be vegetarian? how many are really murderers? yes, i know, no politics on eGullet.

if you knew you were going to die, would you really be able to eat this:

12 pieces of chicken (thighs and drumsticks), 2 double-meat cheeseburgers on toasted buns, 1 large place of brown french fries with ketchup, 2 large onions (cut in slices), 2 large tomatoes (cut in slices), 6 sweet pickles, salad dressing, 5 sliced jalapeno peppers, peach cobbler with extra crust, and milk

in more ways than i had ever imagined, we live in a strange world.

perhaps my last meal: savarin laced with cyanide.

[NeroW]

No execution. Steak.

Word.

indiagirl, this list of prisoners and their last meals also affected my sister and I quite strongly. We remembered seeing it in Harper's Magazine some time ago.

I suppose I would want moules frites, although they'd have fun with me after that due to my strange, late-developing, and severe mussel allergy.

But if it was my last meal, who cares? Sad to think that'd be the only way I could ever eat moules frites again.

[Jinmyo]

Here is an article on last meals for prisoners about to executed.

[tommy]

i'm in good company.

[indiagirl]

Interesting article.

Amos Lee King, executed in Florida in February, was not allowed to choose a last meal. He had already gotten two, officials said, for previously scheduled executions that were halted at the last minute.

How petty.

Also, a link

The thread where we dicussed the TDCJ website

[tommy]

Interesting article.

Amos Lee King, executed in Florida in February, was not allowed to choose a last meal. He had already gotten two, officials said, for previously scheduled executions that were halted at the last minute.

How petty.

yeah. poor guy.

[elyse]

Amos Lee King, executed in Florida in February, was not allowed to choose a last meal. He had already gotten two, officials said, for previously scheduled executions that were halted at the last minute.

That is truly horrible. Pack of assholes.

[Xanthippe]

Amos Lee King, executed in Florida in February, was not allowed to choose a last meal. He had already gotten two, officials said, for previously scheduled executions that were halted at the last minute.

That is truly horrible. Pack of assholes.

Pack of assholes indeed, elyse!

Oy, don't get me started on our broken-beyond-repair prison system . . .

[Rail Paul]

Amos Lee King, executed in Florida in February, was not allowed to choose a last meal. He had already gotten two, officials said, for previously scheduled executions that were halted at the last minute.

That is truly horrible. Pack of assholes.

Pack of assholes indeed, elyse!

Oy, don't get me started on our broken-beyond-repair prison system . . .

Sounds to me like the guy lucked out, twice.

He coulda been fried twice, and he's complaining about not getting his third cheeseburger. Things could be worse for him, lots worse...

[tommy]

Sounds to me like the guy lucked out, twice.

He coulda been fried twice, and he's complaining about not getting his third cheeseburger.  Things could be worse for him, lots worse...

as far as i can tell, they *did* get worse!

no soapbox here, but i'm amazed that anyone cares that he didn't get his 3rd cheeseburger.

[Nick]

Sounds to me like the guy lucked out, twice.

He coulda been fried twice, and he's complaining about not getting his third cheeseburger.  Things could be worse for him, lots worse...

Paul, I hope you're jiving - or that you know enough about the case, that you know he was guilty as accused. Otherwise, I have to wonder where you're coming from.

[indiagirl]

Either way, innocent or guilt (and that's a political discussion we aren't supposed to get in to here) what I don't get is what possible reason there could be for them to be so petty? It's his meal, for crying out loud. What possible reason could they have to refuse it? That it sets a bad example?

And then there is the inconsistency, which leades me to think this is some petty whim that we are reading about - if he got the meal the first two times, why not the third time?

Also, just to point out, the article did not say anything about him complaining about it.

[anil]

...... if he got the meal the first two times, why not the third time?

.....

Budget cuts ? Total allocation exceeded ? Higher TCE ?

Edited April 7, 2003 by anil (log)

[Rail Paul]

The death penalty was restored in NJ in 1976.

Seventeen people have been sent to death row since then, none have been executed due to appeals. Four have been killed by other inmates, including Jesse Timedequas. He tortured and killed 8 year old Megan Kanka (Megan's law). One of his death row inmates killed him during his 10 year appeals process. saved the state a few bucks.

Another death row inmate strangled a state trooper. one of his buddies on the row killed him. With a broken glass, I believe. The killer has already been convicted of two murders, both death penalties, so it's not like he's got anything to lose.

Nobody gets on death row for good behavior. Bitchin' about not getting a cheeseburger won't get my sympathy

[elyse]

It's just a fucking burger for Christ's sake. Or whatever the meal is, it'll be, in all probability, the last, or one of the last, he'll ever eat. Imagine that? It's not like they're letting him lose in a brothel or letting him go to a "hedonism" vacation spot. They're killing the guy before he'll have time to digest the food he's just eaten. And imagine having two false alarms the mornings of the execution? I might want to be killed to stop the suspense.

[indiagirl]

As it happens, we chose a disturbing one to discuss here.

Try Googling "Amos Lee King".

[elyse]

Nobody gets on death row for good behavior. Bitchin' about not getting a cheeseburger won't get my sympathy

But they do get there by holes in the legal system and mistakes. How many people have been executed falsely? Once is too many. Twice is time to stop.

I'm sure no one on death row wants your sympathy.

[tommy]

But they do get there by holes in the legal system and mistakes.  How many people have been executed falsely? 

do they? as paul suggests, there have been 17 people sent to death row in the last 27 years or so. the odds are pretty slim that even one was due to a "mistake." i'm guessing that more people have been executed on death row in the movies and on TV in the last 27 years than have actually been executed. but if you have some numbers on how many people have even been suspected of having been executed for a crime they didn't commit, or by some mix-up or mistake, feel free to share with the class.

no one here knows, i'm sure, but perhaps there's a "rule" or "law" or whatever it is saying that each inmate is guaranteed *one* meal of his/her choice while on death row. perhaps that nice man got an extra one, in which case, it wouldn't be petty at all. suddenly "da man" was being generous.

all i know is, i'm not in prison, as i haven't committed any crimes against mankind (or at least i haven't been caught), and i can have a cheeseburger whenever i want...although i have to pay for it.

Edited April 7, 2003 by tommy (log)

[elyse]

But they do get there by holes in the legal system and mistakes.  How many people have been executed falsely? 

do they? as paul suggests, there have been 17 people sent to death row in the last 27 years or so. the odds are pretty slim that even one was due to a "mistake." i'm guessing that more people have been executed on death row in the movies and on TV in the last 27 years than have actually been executed. but if you have some numbers on how many people have even been suspected of having been executed for a crime they didn't commit, or by some mix-up or mistake, feel free to share with the class.

no one here knows, i'm sure, but perhaps there's a "rule" or "law" or whatever it is saying that each inmate is guaranteed *one* meal of his/her choice while on death row. perhaps that nice man got an extra one, in which case, it wouldn't be petty at all. suddenly "da man" was being generous.

all i know is, i'm not in prison, as i haven't committed any crimes against mankind (or at least i haven't been caught), and i can have a cheeseburger whenever i want...although i have to pay for it.

I believe that was 17 people in NJ, Tommy. I don't have any numbers, but if I have time in the near future, I'll try to find some. I do know that I keep hearing about them over the years. Or about people who have been incarcerated for 40 years when "new evidence" is "uncovered." It's outrageous.

Saying that each inmate gets the last meal of their choice is misleading. It is their choice of what they have on hand in the prison cafeteria. As the article said, OCCASIONALLY will they go out of their way to get something from outside. So, they're really not bending over backwards for this last hoorah.

And of course fictional death occurs more frequently. Sympathy sells. BIG time.

Eat a cheeseburger, Tommy, and be happy.

[tommy]

I don't have any numbers, but if I have time in the near future, I'll try to find some.  I do know that I keep hearing about them over the years.  Or about people who have been incarcerated for 40 years when "new evidence" is "uncovered."  It's outrageous.

I totally agree. and those situations scare the hell out of me as well as anger me. but we're not talking about that segment of the population (the overall segment). we're talking about people on death row, and even more specifically, those people executed (which amounts to a fraction of those on death row). statistically speaking, the odds are very low that someone will be wrongly executed (not that it hasn't happened). however, my guess is that they there to begin with, they did *something* wrong and just didn't get caught.

i'll take you up on that cheeseburger. i'll be at smith and wollensky's today if you'd like to join me.

disclaimer: i'm totally bored this morning, awaiting a snow storm. otherwise, i'd have no interest in perpetuating this discussion after elyse so graciously ended it.

Edited April 7, 2003 by tommy (log)

[elyse]

Did I end it?

Damn...!

[tommy]

Did I end it? 

Damn...!

Eat a cheeseburger, Tommy, and be happy.   

a smile and a cheeseburger ends *all* silly arguments and discussions. more people should take note.

[elyse]

I shall endevour to remember that.

[tommy]

duly noted.