Death row inmates in Texas no longer get final meal because of one man’s very specific request

In the state of Texas, people who are sentenced to death no longer get to choose what they eat for their final meal before they are executed. This rule has been in place since 2011, and it was changed because of something one man did that upset many people.

Before this change, it was a common practice for death row inmates to be asked what they wanted to eat for their last meal. They could request almost anything within reason, and the prison staff would try to prepare it for them. It was seen as a small act of compassion for someone facing the end of their life, no matter what crime they had committed.

Today, this no longer happens in Texas. The decision to stop it was made after an inmate named Lawrence Russell Brewer made an unusually large and specific meal request and then refused to eat any of it.

Brewer had been convicted of a horrible hate crime. He was a white supremacist who, along with others, brutally murdered a Black man named James Byrd Jr. in 1998. When it was time for Brewer’s execution in 2011, he was asked what he wanted for his last meal.

He requested an enormous amount of food — two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue meat, three fajitas, a meat lover’s pizza, a pint of ice cream, and a large portion of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.

Even though his request was excessive, the prison prepared and served him everything he asked for. But when the food arrived, Brewer didn’t eat any of it. He just said he wasn’t hungry.

This angered a lot of people, especially Senator John Whitmire from Texas. He felt that giving someone convicted of such a terrible crime that kind of special treatment was unfair and disrespectful, especially when the person didn’t even eat the food.

He wrote a letter to the head of the Texas prison system, saying this practice should stop immediately.

The prison officials agreed, and from that point on, no other death row inmate in Texas would be allowed to choose their last meal. It was a tradition that had lasted 87 years, but it ended with that one incident.

Since then, all death row inmates in Texas get the same kind of meal as everyone else in prison. They no longer have the option to pick something special. One of the people affected by this rule was Moises S.

Mendoza, who was executed in April. Mendoza had been convicted of killing a young woman named Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson back in 2004. He stayed on death row for five years. On the day of his execution, he did not get to choose a final meal.

In his last words, he gave a heartfelt apology to the victim’s family, especially to Rachelle’s young daughter. He said he was deeply sorry for what he had done, and that he understood nothing could undo the pain he caused. He asked for forgiveness and said he wished he could make it right.

Even though many countries and U.S. states have stopped using the death penalty, Texas continues to carry it out. As of 2022, the death penalty was still in use in 55 countries around the world, and more than 28,000 people were on death row.

In the United States, only 27 out of 50 states still allow executions. Texas is one of the most active states when it comes to carrying out the death penalty, and now, it also has one of the strictest rules—no more final meal requests for those who are about to die.