Share
9th June 2025
04:39pm BST
This death row inmate's final meal was so controversial that it's now banned.
The 'death row meal' is something almost everyone has thought about and discussed, but did you ever think what you want may be banned?
It would be pretty disappointing if you ask me...
Well, it turns out that in the state of Texas, death row inmates have been stripped of the privilege due to one inmate's request 14 years ago.
Lawrence Russell Brewer was a 44-year-old white supremacist who was convicted for the horrific racially-motivated murder of James Byrd Jr in June 1998.
Brewer and his co-convict, John King, became the first white men to receive the death penalty for killing a black man in modern Texas.
Following their convictions, their crimes prompted the introduction of new state laws around hate crimes.
Ahead of his 2011 execution, Brewer ordered a massive final meal including a bowl of fried okra with ketchup, two chicken steaks with gravy and onions, and a cheese omelette with ground beef, jalapenos, and bell peppers.
But, according to a report by the Houston Chronicle, the order didn't stop there.
He also requested a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, three fajitas, one pound of barbecue and a half loaf of white bread, pizza meat lover's special, one pint of 'homemade vanilla' Blue Bell ice cream, one slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts, and three root beers.
What's wrong with that you may ask?
Well, nothing, except for the fact that when the food arrived, he refused to eat it, saying he wasn't hungry.
Texan senator John Whitmire didn't take the matter of wasted food lightly.
Whitmire, who is now the mayor of Houston, said he believed it was 'inappropriate' to provide death row prisoners with such a privilege.
"Enough is enough," Whitmire said at the time. "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," he explained.
Executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Brad Livingston, agreed with him which led to the abolishment.
