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| OK continues last meal tradition |
| By newsok.com - ANDREW KNITTLE |
| Published: 09/27/2011 |
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Despite a high-profile move by Texas prison officials to end the long-standing tradition, Oklahoma will continue to grant last meal requests to death row inmates before they're executed. Last week, the head of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced that death row inmates in the Lone Star State will no longer be granted opulent last meal requests after a convicted murderer didn't touch a large offering provided by a Texas prison. Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed Wednesday for the June 1998 dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas, reportedly ordered a massive feast for his last meal, including two chicken-fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. When Texas prison officials reported that Brewer didn't eat a bite of food before he was killed by lethal injection, state Sen. John Whitmire promptly wrote a letter to the director of the state's corrections department demanding the long-standing practice be discontinued. Within hours, Whitmire's request was granted by Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, who found the senator's demands appropriate. Jerry Massie, spokesman for the Oklahoma Corrections Department, said he hasn't heard from any angry lawmakers since the news broke in Texas. He said the state has strict guidelines concerning last meal requests that protect against inmates wasting huge quantities of food. “The meal isn't prepared here at the prison,” Massie said. “There's a $15 limit and all the food must be obtained locally, in McAlester.” Read More. |
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