Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee in Texas wants to get rid of last meals after death row inmate Lawrence Russell Brewer ordered a last meal consisting of two chicken fried steaks smothered in gravy with sliced onions, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, a cheese omelet, a bowl of fried okra with ketchup, three fajitas, a pint of ice cream, a pound of barbecue with a half-loaf of white bread ,a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts, a pizza and three root beers.” I don’t know if Senator Whitmire should be upset with the prisoner or the system that allows for such ridiculousness. Anyway, rather than make a simple rule that says: “Nothing extravagant,” Senator Whitmire wants to get rid of last meals entirely. Lawrence Russell Brewer was involved in the racially motivated slaying of James Byrd. Lawrence Brewer was an unrepentant murderer until the end, and it seems he will be the last in Texas to receive a last meal.
[CNN]
I cannot find a rational reason to support the death penalty at this point. The only thing that makes sense about it, would be to serve revenge and to appeal to your hateful/ignorant constituent that have a hard on for “justice”.
It is supposed to act as a deterrent, it does not. It is supposed to only happen to those most certainly guilty, and yet many have been exonerated due to new evidence many years later and many are on death row as we speak with “flimsy” evidence. It is a more expensive end result than life in prison. And notably, 15.5% higher rate of its use applied to a black defendent when the victim was white within the south (9% nationally, most of that is generated from southern states though).
Only for biblical literalists could they justify this kind of immorality.
We need a national ban on the death penalty I say.