Saturday, September 24, 2011

Killer's Excessive Order Ends Texas's 'Last Request' Meals

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: 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.

Brewer, a white supremacist gang member, was convicted of chaining James Byrd jnr, 49, to the back of a pick-up truck and dragging him to his death along a bumpy road in 1998. » | Michael Graczyk | Saturday, September 24, 2011