Updated: TDCJ Will End Final Feasts Before Executions
The long-standing tradition of allowing death row inmates one last special meal of their choosing before they enter the execution chamber ends today, said Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Livingston made the announcement just hours after receiving a letter from state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, in which the chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee called for an immediate end to the practice he called an "extremely inappropriate" privilege.
"Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made," Livingston said in an emailed statement. "They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on ...
Comments (36)
Mark Pulliam via Texas Tribune on Facebook
That meal would have been deadly on its own!
Hippie liberal momma via Texas Tribune on Facebook
what a dick
David Huang via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Dick move, buddy. Dick move.
Patrick Fortner via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The 'Dick move' was dragging that poor man to death behind a pickup. We're all better off now that he is no longer sharing our air.
Virginia Barton Mehaffie via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I am opposed to the death penalty, period. This post makes me want to throw up. If the death penalty really were a deterrent, the ones that have already been carried out would make it unnecessary to continue the gruesome process. Punishment for crime, yes indeed, but taking a life on my behalf (as a part of the state), not now, not ever. Shame on our uncivilized country (or the part of it that applauds the process).
Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Thank you Brandi for this excellent, excellent piece! How does the cost of a last meal (for a man who's has been deprived of everything for years on end) compares with the cost of the death penalty??? By the way, there was no way to leave a comment after the article on the website, even after I logged in...
Maité Landa via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Did the executioners donate the meal to the local homeless or battered women's shelter? Or did they simply toss it in the trash?
A. Bryant
An innocent man was murdered in Georgia last night! Willingham in Texas was an innocent man murdered in Texas. Perry stopped the investigation when it began to look like they found proof of Willinghams innocense and he says he does not feel bad about it at all! Rick needs to be praying for forgivness for all the murders he has okeyed in Texas verses praying for rain or that maybe Trump will pay off the Texas deficit or that our children some how get a education in Texas. Texas is already number 48th in the nation for education. Perry does not care; he knew he was leaving Texas a long time ago so he does not care what happens in Texas. He only cares about those who can money in his pocket; he absolutely does NOT care about the middle class who are now the poor class.
David Huang via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The tradition goes back centuries. If you are putting a man to death, the least you could do is give him a last meal.It's not an admission of guilt, it's compassion.
psymetric
Much ado about nothing. Don't politicians have any real issues to attend to.
Crutherton Fornsby via Texas Tribune on Facebook
the state, being anonymous, has compassion.
Gary S. Whitford via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Are there leftovers?
George Schwarz
Sen. John Whitmire is just trying to get some traction with the blood-lust Texas constituency that favors the death penalty. Not only are we going to kill 'em, but were going to remove an ages-old tradition. This is a cynical political pandering of the worst kind because it uses the life-and-death issue of the death penalty to foster a political ambition.
That said, and the Brewer case aside, the entire use of the term "criminal justice system" is a joke. There is no justice in our system. Just look at the Cameron Todd Willingham case, which our sleazy governor continues to hide from with his own faux Christian subversive tactics; and, other exonerations in Texas that show how flawed the system is. Then, of course, was the Troy Davis execution last night in Georgia. We are willing as a society to err on the side of death instead of on the side of doubt. I know of no major religion that justifies this kind of view of the state taking someone's life.
Mark E Denman via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"It is anomalous that you would do this for anybody in prison,"-Jim Harrington (a·nom·a·lous Adjective: Deviating from what is standard, normal, or expected.) It has been standard for some time now. it is a cultural belief that even the most evil of men deserve some compassion. last meal has been a symbol of that for some time. Having this symbol shows that as a people we have deep and thoughtful civility. The fact that we are casting it aside is very sad.
Tom Sweazea via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I say we spend that money on making sure they're not putting an innocent person to death !!! That's what should be important.
David Whitten
"I have yielded to TDCJ judgment in the past." Yes, John, that seems to be the problem. You have repeatedly demonstrated your pervasive stupidity by your vacuous comments concerning TDCJ-ID operations. I suppose it started with those cell phone calls from death row. You lack in insight is monumental.
In my opinion, your responses are generally retroactive. In essence, you seem to emote in the presence of unsavory information. In this circumstance, an unrepentant White Supremacist had a spread before he took the final ride. It is tradition John. Get over it.
So, let's get on our knees & pray for our enemies. Isn't that what Christians do? I am curious. John, would you pray for his soul? I didn't think so.
Melissa Cubria via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I agree with you completely Mark. I am very disappointed with this decision. Jesus Christ was given a Last Super.
Melissa Cubria via Texas Tribune on Facebook
rather than ending the practice altogether, they should set reasonable/uniform standards so that in the future, people do not take advantage of the practice as was the case with the white supremecist. when I heard news of this decision, I was deeply saddened.
Melissa Cubria via Texas Tribune on Facebook
seems like Texas has the habit of executing innocent people and being overly generous to the really disgusting, reprehensible killers.
Vicki Rawlins McCuistion via Texas Tribune on Facebook
fine take the food away, in exchange allow them to be in the same room as their family and children to say goodbye.
Crutherton Fornsby via Texas Tribune on Facebook
They're encouraging gluttony, he should at least work that off some for a few hours like Dostoevsky did. Exile of the Dream of the Ridiculous Man.
Crutherton Fornsby via Texas Tribune on Facebook
They should have a pancake theory execution mode for the village people.
Melissa Howell via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Sounds good to me! Hopefully this spreads across US prisons. They also need to take away the free cable TV, free education, free legal aid and free healthcare that we as law-abiding, working class citizens pay for, but have a tough enough time getting for ourselves. They also need to shorten the time death row inmates are allowed to remain on death row to 5, maybe 10 years max,and set limits on the # of appeals they can have. Any appeals after the 1st one should be paid for by the inmate or his family or some private donor, NOT our tax dollars! The appeals is part of the reason it's usually cheaper to sentence them to life instead of putting them to death.
Melissa Howell via Texas Tribune on Facebook
For those of you speaking about "compassion" towards Brewster or any other death row inmate, where was THEIR compassion when they committed the murder(s) that got them put on death row? How "compassionate" was Brewster towards Mr. Byrd as he dragged him down a dirt and gravel road behind a pick-up??? Did Brewster allow Mr. Byrd a last meal, last rights or one last visit with his family? No. Screw Brewster.
Melissa Howell via Texas Tribune on Facebook
*Brewer
Thomas Prentice via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Boy is THIS so-called logic backwards. but Livingston, his employees and his Perry appointed board aren't too BRIGHT let alone MORAL.
Yaw Asamoah via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Amen Tom, but that would be too logical.
tanya flores
USA is so far from god's mercy,,,,i mean according to the bible and the historic evens JESUS had the enough mercy to die by US cleaning US to find forgivness before god, AND this guys are acting like real SATANIC,
Stanley Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Leave it to one person to ruin it for everyone! Glutten.
Mark E Denman via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This tradition is very old. It helps to show that everyone even the most evil of us, is part of our society, and even condemned men deserve some compassion. I find this decision to be immature.
phillip baker
I agree that TDCJ should have told Lawrence Brewer that his request was excessive and started it over. But have we Texans so lost our compassion as human beings that we cannot treat a condemned man with consideration? We are about to strap him onto a gurney, stick IV's in his arms, flood him with poisons to kill him- all in cold blood. And we want to be so lacking in compassion as to deny him the pittance of a last meal? It's not about his lack of compassion nor what he deserves. It's what we should expect of ourselves. Otherwise, what is the difference between us?
As for M Howell, here's another angry citizen who has NO clue about what life in prison is like. Free cable, free education, free healthcare? Cable helps the prison manage and control in mates by giving them outlets to keep them from acting out. Free education? Minimal at best. Healthcare? We provide 3rd world healthcare to inmates in Texas, and we're cutting even that! "Dying in silence" best describes that healthcare.Do not even try that "better care than us law abiding citizens". That's what we tell ourselves so we don't have to look at the truth of our brutal treatment of prisoners. I bet you see ALL inmates as rapists and murderers, yet most are there for drug related crimes like burglary. Simple human compassion, common sense, and the LAW require that we provide health care at a level equivalent to the free world. But we don't. And just remember, during this last god awful summer, these men and women lived in concrete and steel boxes with NO air conditioning. So go gloat over their suffering, M Howell. The national shame of Texas' broken criminal "justice" system must make you positively giddy in your mean-spiritedness. Yet I bet you sit in a church regularly, congratulating yourself on being a good Christian. Disgusting!
Minerva Regalado
Good for Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, this practice should not be seen as any feelings by citizens on a person being executed. They did a crime, some against humanity, so they should lose all privileges, including that special last meal. Also glad to see Senator Whitmire has the courage to stand up to this inappropriate practice. Death row inmates should receive the same last meal as everyone else, what a waste of special meals when so many others are going hungry. It's their last meal, why should they be "rewarded" with something special? Please, let’s not pass ANOTHER LAW, just end the practice as I believe has/will occur.
phillip baker
Perhaps Minerva et al, we should return to the good old days of Elizabethan England and do our executions properly- outside, in front of cheering crowds, first hanging the man till he is almost but not quite dead, then strap him down and castrate him followed by cutting his bowels and wrapping them on a stick to be thrown into a fire. Would that satisfy your bloodlust? I still say the last meal and how we treat this man in the short time before we kill him should be done with some compassion- not because he deserves it, but because it is how WE choose to act. Then strap him down, hook up those IV's and get those poisons going- including the pancuronium which we ban in the euthanasia of animals because it is believe to cause excruciating pain but willingly use on human beings. But wait, maybe that is the whole point. Texas has become a place were compassion is shunned as "liberal", justice is iffy at best, people are commonly imprisoned falsely, and people just don't give a damn anymore. And still we see all those WWJD bracelets around...
Mike Dunn
How common was it for prison officials to bring in a nine-course meal for condemned inmates?
According to the compilation of last words of those previously executed, that also includes the last meal prepared, apparently Lawrence Russell Brewer was the only one!
How coincidental was it that Brewer was a white supremacist member of the Confederate Knights of America?
The real story is who ordered the meal and why.
A. Bryant
I agree that Brewer should not have had that much food. Living in Livingston at Polunsky Unit, especially Death Row in metal boxes of 126% to 132% temperature and every meal looking like "dog-vomit", inmates should at least have one decent meal before execution. It appears Sen. John Whitmire has once again made himself look as if he has nothing better to do but think up ways to be hateful & torture inmates. He needs to be replaced; he is the monster as well as Supercutsperry. Most inmates are in prisons for drugs or burgulary. Most inmates are in Tx. prisons for a certain number of years and NOT death from the TX. heat. Too many loved ones are dying from the heat, however; not one single inmate was listed as heat related by the Texas Attorney Generals Office. The autopsys might as well say "heart stopped" because that is what happens when the inmate dies verses "cardiac arrest"! Familes who have loved ones in the Custody of Texas 113 Prisons and die of a heart attack, should have an investigation done as well as an independent autopsy and not the Medical Dept. of the University of Texas who appear to say whatever TDCJ wants them to say!
phillip baker
A. Bryant- go back through a few old Grits blogs to the one about the heat in prisons and TDCJ's claims it was taking all precautions to deal with it. A nurse commented there that 2 men had died of heat stroke on her unit, but it was never reported as such. You are absolutely right that UTMB does what TDCJ says to do. I've battled UTMB to get decent health care to a friend- it took 10 months before they finally, quietly did all that I had asked. But it was 10 months of hell for my friend, and several brushes with death, literally. I have no doubt there were more deaths from that heat than they admit.
On the points above, it is always sad to see how little human compassion some of our fellow citizens seem to have. Texas was not always like this. There was a time when we cared about our fellow Texans, even those in trouble. But the relentless assault on civility has eroded our society to the harsh, mean place it is today. I keep saying, it is NOT about how much compassion and decency the inmate has, it is about OUR compassion, our ability to treat even the condemned with dignity. As to anyone losing all their rights, I recommend that guy go back and read our Declaration of Independence. "All men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights". Inalienable means unable to be taken away, intrinsic to being a human being. Funny how so many people forget the foundation on which this country was based.