No Blue Bell, just death

No last-minute stay for death row last meals: Texas officials reject offer offree meals

Photo by Paul Buck/Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Lawrence Russell Brewer
Photo by Ron Jaap/Beaumont Enterprise.com

If you were going to make an argument against the practice of the death row "last meal," you couldn't do better than Lawrence Russell Brewer did.

Brewer was a white supremacist who, along with two friends, murdered James Byrd Jr. in Jasper in 1998 by chaining him by his ankles and dragging him behind their pickup truck for two miles. It was a modern-day lynching so brutal it got the attention of the entire country and was the impetus for both Texas and federal hate crimes laws.

Before he was executed last week, Brewer requested less of a last meal and more of a last buffet, including a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, a meat-lover's pizza, a bowl of okra with ketchup, a pound of barbecue, half a loaf of bread, peanut butter fudge, a pint of Blue Bell ice cream and two chicken-fried steaks. When the meal arrived at 4 p.m., he told guards he wasn't hungry and declined the entire affair.

Strangely, those you might expect to protest the move — anti-capital punishment activists — have actually welcomed the change, with many saying the last meal tradition gave an undeserved feeling of lenience to the proceedings.

It was a final straw for Texas State Senator John Whitmire, chair of the criminal justice committee, who wrote prison officials that if the indulgent practice wasn't halted he would introduce legislation against it.

"Enough is enough," Whitmire wrote. "It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege. It's a privilege which the perpetrator did not provide to their victim." Prison officials complied, saying that from now on death row prisoners scheduled for execution will receive the same meal as other inmates.

Brian Price, who cooked and served over 200 last meals in his time as an inmate and wrote a book titled Meals To Die For about the experience, called the move "cold-hearted." Speaking to the Associated Press, Price has offered to prepare and pay for last meal requests in the future.

"It's not the cost but rather the concept we're moving away from," Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons told The Los Angeles Times, declining Price's offer.

"It's a minor thing compared with the fact that they are killing him," Brian Evans of Amnesty International told Reuters. "The cruelty of the whole process is much larger than whether you get to pick the last meal that you eat."

I can't help but think Evans has a point. If someone deserves to be put to death, why should they get a last meal of their choosing? And conversely, if death row inmates are entitled to a modicum of comfort or sympathy, shouldn't we reconsider killing them instead of just feeding them?

What do you think? And what would your last meal be?

unspecified

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

undefined

Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”