3 days ago
The death row inmate's last meal that sparked such fury prisoners are no longer allowed to choose what they eat before execution
While many American prisoners awaiting the death penalty are able to choose their final meal before execution, inmates in Texas no longer have this privilege thanks to the actions of one man.
White supremacist Lawrence Brewer was executed in 2011 after he was convicted of helping to kill a black man by dragging him behind a truck in what some call the most notorious race crime of the post-Civil Rights era.
Brewer, 44 - who was convicted of capital murder along with two other men also found guilty of taking part in the kidnapping and slaying of James Byrd Jr. in 1998 - was given a lethal injection of drugs on September 21 and was pronounced dead shortly after.
He had no final words, but he did put in a request for his last meal - two chicken steaks, a triple bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, three fajitas, a pizza, a pint of ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge.
Guards did their best to bring Brewer his favourite foods before his death.
But as his dinner was plated up and presented to him on a table, Brewer refused to eat a single bite.
His refusal to eat the multi-course meal angered Texas senator John Whitmire, prompting him to put an end to the tradition, saying 'it's long overdue.'
'Enough is enough', the senator declared, stating that the last meal request is an 'extremely inappropriate' privilege, 'one which the perpetrators did not provide to their victim.'
'Mr Byrd didn't get to choose his last meal. The whole deal is so illogical', he added.
Executive director of the Texas criminal justice department, Brad Livingston, agreed with Sen. Whitmire.
He said: '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.'
Brewer had been on death row for 12 years before his 2011 execution.
Speaking to local media before receiving his lethal injection, he said death would be a 'good out' and that he was 'glad it's about to come to an end.'
Asked if he had any last words, he replied: 'No. I have no final statement', as a single tear rolled down his cheek.
Brewer was executed for his part in the 1998 killing of Byrd in Jasper, East Texas, after Brewer and two friends offered him a lift along a remote country road.
Byrd, aged 49 at the time, was beaten unconscious and urinated upon before being bound to the vehicle by his ankles with a heavy logging chain and driven for three miles.
Forensic evidence showed that he was alive for much of the ordeal but was killed when the vehicle hit a concrete drainage channel causing his head and arm to be ripped from his body.
John William King, 36, was also convicted of capital murder and sent to death row.
The third man, Shawn Berry, 36, received a life prison term.
After dumping his remains in an African-American cemetery his killers drove off to a barbeque.
In an interview from death row, Brewer told KFDM that he participated in the assault on Byrd but had 'nothing to do with the killing as far as dragging him or driving the truck or anything'.
Before receiving his lethal injection, Brewer's family was allowed to see him one last time.
He was then taken from the Polunsky Unit in Livingston to an isolation cell in Huntsville where the sentence was carried out.
Byrd's brutal killing led to the 'Federal October 22, 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act', commonly known as the 'Matthew Shepard Act'.
Then-President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on October 28, 2009.
The horrific death put Jasper, a typical East Texas town with a Dairy Queen, Walmart and a handful of fast-food places some 60 miles from the nearest interstate highway, under a national spotlight.
'Everywhere you went, anywhere in the country, once people found out you were from Jasper, Texas, they wanted to ask you about it,' said Mike Lout, mayor and the town radio station owner.
'Everybody first was shocked and appalled and not proud of it. They talked about it so much in the days past it, I think most people wanted to put it out of their minds.'
'It's heartbreaking,' said Billy Rowles, who was sheriff at the time of Mr Byrd's murder.
'A lot of effort and hard work and soul-searching went into trying to live down the stereotype. It's so easy to get back into that mode.'
His huge last meal had echoes of that enjoyed by Robert Harris in 1992, who killed two teenage boys.
He had a chicken bucket, two large pizzas, a Pepsi six-pack, jelly beans and Camel cigarettes.
The subject of last meals before execution has thrown up some interesting results over the last few decades, with infamous killer James Smith being refused a request of dirt in 1990 and instead eating yoghurt.
While not a mandatory requirement for prisoners on death row in countries where the death penalty still exists, the request is often granted in the US, with the final meals written into public records of executions.
Despite Texas' decision to no longer allow prisoners to choose their last meals, other states continue to give inmates the option to.
Some states, however, have a final meal price limit, while others require the meal to be served within a specific time.
It is not uncommon for prisoners to order nostalgic meals that offer them a last flavour of happiness before they face the most extreme punishment possible for their heinous crimes.
While extensive, Brewer's request was far from the largest or most bizarre death row meal orders.
Back in 2011, prisoner Cleve Foster's requested two fried chickens, French fries and a 19-litre bucket of peaches.
In 2000, Odell Barnes Jr. from Texas, who was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of Helen Bass, requested 'justice, equality and world peace.'
In 2002, Robert Anthony Buell, from Ohio, was executed by lethal injection for the 1982 murder of 11-year-old Krista Lea Harrison.
For his final meal, he requested a single, black, un-pitted olive.
