Last meal

The last meal is a customary part of a condemned prisoner's last day. The day before the appointed time of execution, the prisoner will be given the meal, as well as religious rites, if he or she desires.

In many countries the prisoner may have the luxury of selecting what the last meal will be (within reason), and the authorities do their best to provide a prisoner with the requested meal.

History

Although the history of the tradition of giving a prisoner condemned to capital punishment a last meal is difficult to assess, most modern governments which execute prisoners subscribe to it.

The ancient Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, and Romans all had a tradition of giving the condemned man a final meal. The Aztecs fed their human sacrifices for up to a year before their death.[1]

In pre-modern Europe, the ritual of granting the condemned a last meal has its seeds in common superstition: a meal was a highly symbolic social act. Accepting food, which was offered freely, meant to make one's peace with the host - the guest agreed tacitly to take an oath of truce and symbolically abjured all vengeance. Consequentially, in accepting the last meal the condemned was believed to forgive the executioner, the judge, and the witnessing mob. The ritual was supposed to prevent the delinquent from haunting those people, who were responsible for his or her killing, as a ghost or a revenant. The meal was therefore mainly a superstitious precaution and - following that logic - the better the food and the drinks, the safer the condemned's oath of truce. Last meals were often public and all parties which were involved in the penal process took part.

There were some practical side effects of a peaceful last meal as well - it was crucial for the authorities that a public execution was a successful spectacle. In the eyes of the contemporaries the violated law could only be restored by mirroring the crime via retaliative penalties (see lex talionis). However, if the mob had the impression that something was wrong and the chief character of the show was reluctant to play his or her role, things could get out of hand and place the malefactor's guilt in doubt. Hence it was most important for the authorities that the condemned met his or her fate calmly. Apart from having been constantly coerced since the death sentence, the solemn last meal of the condemned was a significant symbol for the mob that he or she finally accepted the punishment. Additionally, delinquents were often served large quantities of alcoholic beverages to soothe them and bar them from execrating the authorities while ascending the scaffold - which would have been considered a bad omen.

Restrictions

In the United States of America most states give the meal a day or two prior to execution, and use the euphemism "special meal". Alcohol or tobacco is usually denied. An unorthodox or unavailable request will be replaced with a substitute. Some states place tight restrictions: all food must come from within the prison system. Maryland does not offer the condemned a special last meal. Texas limits last meals to food available within the prison system, though occasionally brings in food "from the free world". In Florida, the food for the last meal must be purchased locally and the cost is limited to $40.

Famous last meal requests

This represents the items reported requested but does not, in all cases, necessarily represent what the prisoner actually received.

• Adolf Eichmann: He declined a special meal, preferring a bottle of Carmel, a dry red Israeli wine. He drank about half of it.
• Aileen Wuornos: She declined a special meal, but had a hamburger and other snack food from the prison's canteen. Later, she drank a cup of coffee.
• Allen Lee Davis: 350-pound "Tiny" Davis had the following last meal: one lobster tail, fried potatoes, a half-pound of fried shrimp, six ounces of fried clams, half a loaf of garlic bread, and 32 ounces of A&W root beer.
• Ángel Nieves Díaz: He declined a special meal. He was then served the regular prison meal for that day, but he declined that as well.
• Bruno Richard Hauptmann: Celery, olives, chicken, French fries, buttered peas, cherries, and a slice of cake.
• Desmond Keith Carter: He declined a special meal, but had two cheeseburgers, a steak sub, and two Cokes from the prison canteen, for which he paid $4.20 from his prison account.
• Dobie Gillis Williams: Twelve candy bars and some ice cream.
• Edward Hartman: A Greek salad, linguini with white clam sauce, cheese cake with cherry topping, garlic bread, and a Coke.
• Gary Gilmore: A hamburger, hard-boiled eggs, a baked potato, a few cups of coffee, and three shots of whiskey.
• Gary M. Heidnik: Two slices of a cheese pizza and two cups of black coffee.
• Henry Martinez Porter: Flour tortillas, T-bone steak, refried beans, tossed salad, jalapeño peppers, ice cream, and chocolate cake.
• James Edward Smith: A lump of dirt, denied. Settled for a small cup of yogurt.
• John Wayne Gacy: A dozen deep-fried shrimp, a bucket of original recipe chicken from KFC, French fries, and a pound of strawberries.
• Karla Faye Tucker: Banana, peach, and garden salad with ranch dressing.
• Perry Smith and Richard Hickock: Shrimp, French fries, garlic bread, ice cream, and strawberries with whipped cream.
• Philip Workman: He declined a special meal for himself, but he asked for a large vegetarian pizza to be given to a homeless person in Nashville, Tennessee. This request was denied.
• Rainey Bethea: Fried chicken, pork chops, mashed potatoes, pickled cucumbers, cornbread, lemon pie, and ice cream.
• Robert Alton Harris: A 21-piece bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, two large Domino's pizzas (no anchovies), ice cream, a bag of jelly beans, a six-pack of Pepsi, and a pack of Camel cigarettes.
• Ted Bundy: He declined a special meal, so he was given the traditional steak (medium-rare), eggs (over-easy), hash browns, toast, milk, coffee, juice, butter, and jelly.
• Timothy McVeigh: Two pints of mint chocolate-chip ice cream.
• Velma Barfield: She declined a special meal, having a bag of Cheez Doodles and a can of Coca-Cola instead.
• Victor Feguer: A single olive with the pit still in it.
• Wesley Baker:; breaded fish, pasta marinara, green beans, orange fruit punch, bread, and milk (Maryland execution: this was what was on the prison menu that day).
• William Bonin: Two pepperoni and sausage pizzas, three servings of chocolate ice cream, and fifteen cans of Coca-Cola.

Famous fictional last meals

These last meals were featured in various forms of media, including film, books, and television.

• David Gale in The Life of David Gale: Pancakes with maple syrup, strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings.
• Lincoln Burrows in Prison Break: Blueberry pancakes.
• John Coffey in The Green Mile: Cornbread, meat loaf, mashed potatoes with gravy, okra, and peach cobbler.
• Eduard Delacroix in The Green Mile: Chili (requested that the prison's kitchen staff "lay on that hot stuff").
• Matthew Poncelet in Dead Man Walking: Shrimp.
• Sam Cayhall in The Chamber: A bowl of eskimo pies and a pot of French Market coffee.
• Frank Beachum in True Crime (novel) and True Crime (1999 film): Steak, French fries, and a beer.
• Cyril O'Reily in Oz: Fluffernutters (peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwiches).
• Ray Kaspo in the Monk episode Mr. Monk Goes to Jail: Chili and Ribs.
• Ken Kramer in the CSI: Miami episode Whacked: A single peanut butter and jelly sandwich (no one at the prison knew Kramer had a fatal allergy to peanuts, thus he chose this to commit suicide before being executed).
• Homer Simpson in The Simpsons episode The Frying Game: Beer, Donuts, and Fried Chicken.

Miscellany

• Artist Julie Green paints a series called "The Last Supper". This is an on-going series of painted porcelain plates illustrating final meals of United States death row inmates [2]
• In the episode 'Reborn to be Wild' of the Fox animated series King of the Hill; Dale, Bill, Boomhauer and Kahn briefly created a "last meal club" in the realization that a condemned prisoner ate better than they did. They were eventually frightened away by the morbid nature of the meal and a feeling that they were tempting fate.
• An episode of the 1972 series The ABC Comedy Hour featured a sketch with Frank Gorshin imitating James Cagney as a condemned prisoner and Rich Little imitating James Stewart as a prison warden. When Little (as Stewart) told Gorshin he could have anything he wanted for his last meal, Gorshin (as Cagney) ordered "about a thousand" hummingbird tongues.
• With the advent of the Internet, a number of people seemed to become interested in what the typically requested last meals were. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice used to make available the list of the requested last meal of recent inmates, and whether the request was fulfilled. The list has since been terminated but most of the entries can still be accessed through archives.
• In the movie Frankie and Johnny, Al Pacino plays an ex-prisoner/chef who used to make prison dinners and last meals for deathrow inmates.
• In an episode of Da Ali G Show, Ali G asked Dick Thornburgh if a prisoner can order an all-you-can-eat buffet as his last meal to keep eating and never get executed.
• In an episode of Get Smart, secret agent Maxwell Smart is captured by the enemy organization KAOS who decides to execute the spy. Before they carry out the execution, Agent Smart requests an enormous last meal to stall for time in the hopes that a rescue will be mounted. Once finished, many hours later, Smart can barely stand from his seat.

See also

• The Last Supper

Further reading

• Richard van Dülmen (1990). Theatre of Horror : Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Germany. Cambridge. ISBN 0-745-60616-4.
• Michel Foucault (1977). Discipline & Punish : The Birth of the Prison. ISBN 0-679-75255-2.
• Hans von Hentig (1973). Punishment - Its Origin, Purpose, and Psychology. ISBN 0-87585-147-9.

External links

• Bob Greene. They didn't get to choose their last meals. Jewish World Review (2001-06-12). Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
• Tony Karon. Why We're Fascinated by Death Row Cuisine. TIME Magazine (2000-08-10). Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
• Joel Stein. You Eat What You Are. TIME Magazine (2007-10-18). Retrieved on 2007-11-11.
• Final Meal Requests. Texas Department of Criminal Justice (2003-09-12). Archived from the original on 2003-12-02. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
• Last Meals on Death Row (since 2002). Dead Man Eating. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
• Last Meals. rotten dot com. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.