Death row inmates in Texas no longer get final meal because of one man's very specific request
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Buck Kelly/Getty Images
While many death row inmates are given the choice of what they would like to eat as their final meal, prisoners in Texas no longer have this privilege.
As of 2022, 55 countries across the globe still had the death penalty. And as per statistics at the time, it was predicted that over 28,000 people were on death row, said BBC News.
America is one country to still have the death penalty, but it's only enforceable in 27 of its 50 states — one of which being Texas.
One person in the state to have died by lethal injection recently is Moises S. Mendoza, who was convicted of killing 20-year-old mother Rachelle O'Neil Tolleson in 2004.
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Mendoza had been on death row for five years before his execution on April 23. In his final statement, he apologized to his victim's family.
"I am sorry for having robbed you of Rachelle's life," he said.
Mendoza also issued an apology to Tolleson's daughter Avery, whom he said he 'robbed of a mother'.
He continued: "I know nothing that I could ever say or do would ever make up for that. I want you to know I am sincere. I apologize."
Ahead of his execution, Mendoza will not have been able to choose his final meal as death row inmates in Texas have been prohibited from doing so since 2011.
This all came down to Lawrence Russell Brewer's actions before his own execution that year.
Brewer was a white supremacist who was jailed along with three other men for murdering James Byrd Jr. in 1998.
As was tradition at the time, prison guards asked Brewer what he'd like to eat for his last meal - and he didn't waste the opportunity.
According to a report from Jacksonville.com, Brewer asked for practically enough food to make a buffet, including two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas and a meat lover's pizza.
He didn't stop there, as the inmate also asked for some sweet treats to round off the meal, including a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.
The prison delivered on his request, but Brewer decided to not eat a single bite, instead claiming he wasn't hungry.
Brewer's refusal sparked frustration from Texas senator John Whitmire, who wrote a letter to the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to say: "It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege."
The director agreed the senator's concerns were valid, and thus ended the 87-year tradition of allowing death row inmates in Texas to choose their last meal 'effective immediately'.