Last Suppers

I buy Msolga's interpretation. Very insightful.

all that junk food - it makes you wonder if that was part of their problem? a recent experiment here feeding one twin (about 6yrs oldish)on his normal diet of food with additives etc and the other with healthy home cooked additive-free food resulted in a dramatic increase in IQ and far better concentration and good behaviour in a very short time -


if these prisoners hadn't eaten junk and had eaten a healthy diet - would they have committed e crime that got them executed?

You may be right, Vivien. That's an empirical question answerable by research (at least in principle). I tend to think the correlation between death row and junk food as the prisoner's "ideal" meal, is a class phenomenon. Middle and upper class people tend not to commit the kinds of crimes sending them to death row and they are less likely to eat junk food, and they are less likely to want to eat it as their ideal or last meal. I'll bet--don't laugh--that violent murders at restaurants occur far more often at or outside of junk food restaurants than at or outside of "respectable" restaurants."

JL Nobody

But many wealthy people guilty of similar crimes as those here wouldn't end up in the same position. Their clever (expensive) lawyers would find a way of saving them from the worst. No, death Row is for those without money (& often poor education). It's not surprising to me that there's no caviar, nor smoke salmon in these photographs.

... and that's partly what makes the photographs so tragic & pathetic for me.

very true msolga - and if you belong to a very wealthy political dynasty - Chappaquidick????


<spelling is probably wrong - sorry>

Right, Vivien. No Kennedys on death row.

Or Bushes.

Money and influence indeed greases the wheels. This has been seen over and over. Now, why do they swab your arm before giving you a lethal injection?

Obviously, to avoid infection. You know that.

and if you were about to be executed you'd order the low carb, healthy brussel sprouts dinner?

I personally would knock back a huge bloomin onion, 24oz. extra rare prime rib, huge baker with about a pound of sweet cream butter a side of buffalo wings and cover the whole mess in crumpled Cheetos. Triple fudge chocolate ice cream with whole strawberries and hot fudge sauce for desert. No cholesterol in the chair, baby.

That might be it. Now...if I killed someone and was on death row, and needed a last meal, I would have to have somebody create it to my own recipes and specifications. Would I be allowed in the prison kitchen to supervise?

I think the photos made a strong statement. What one draws from them is most likely personal. The pictures make several comments. One, death row prisoners eat crappy food. Two, maybe this is because that is the sort of thing they are used to. Three, extrapolating from the last statement, low-income people tend to commit more serious crimes, and also tend to eat really crappy food. Four, going on an earlier post, perhaps fast food has something to do with these people's bad behaviour, like the infamous Twinkie Defence. Five, the artist has an agenda, and expressed it well, whatever one might think about the politics surrounding it. A lot of issues are packed in here.

Bi-Polar - that sounds good, now you are making me hungry again.

I'll probably be asking for so much food that I will die before finishing it or something that I am allergic to - that way I'll die and don't give them the satisfaction of killing me

The pictures really tell you a lot about these people, where they come from, what sort of life they had, education and weather they had any psychological problem at all.

Probably ritual again, cav. This is what you do when you give someone an injection.

I just occurred to me that of course, none of the prison employees with be wealthy, either. So the whole experience of jail & death row is the provence of the poor, ignorant & disadvantaged. <sigh> Rather similar to the army, I suppose?

That is very perplexing, Joe. Now you've got me thinking ....

Ah, JoeBlow! I was looking for complicated meanings when it's really so simple!: He didn't understand what was happening. It renders me speechless, too ....

Yes. Devastating.

I know what you are saying but the food they chose is just so YUK!!

I am not a health food freak by the way and cream and cholesterol mmm!

.... but as Cav says - they can choose anything, why not choose something really fantastic, expensive, well cooked, tasty and appetising - oh well each to their own! With the melting pot of cultures in America surely there must be some decent food to order in? - or is that only in Canada

Maybe they chose to eat common food because it's something they're comfortable with. Or...for a lot of people, eating loads of food all at once appears to help them to forget about their problems or relieves stress, which can explain the twelve hot dogs. It obviously wouldn't be a moment of happiness for them while they are eating, so it doesn't really make sense that one would choose to eat a delicious, rich meal. As for those meals that looked so lone, like the cereal, the inmate may have just chosen that for no special reason. It seems more like he didn't want to fully oppose the offer, so he chose a simple food item just to satisfy the guards or whoever's in charge.

If I was presented with a selection of choices for a last meal, I'd request only a glass of water. I'm not the type to gorge myself with food when I'm depressed. I tend to do the opposite and not eat at all. (I asked my little brother who's 13, and he said that he would order 20 strips of bacon, two cokes, and a slice of pizza... I can understand why, though. At home, we rarely get a chance to eat fatty foods. It's always plain, old rice.)

But anyways, back to the point...I think it's pretty pathetic to ask the inmates for a last food request. Why should food be so important to them just before death? That's like saying that they are just animals. Sure, they may have committed crimes, but that doesn't make them any less human than others.

I don't know about others, but I wouldn't want to spend my last memories dealing with my last meal. That gives no comfort, whatsoever. It's merely a sorry distraction and blockage of the much worthier memories. I wouldn't want to die after eating a delicious meal. In fact, it wouldn't be delicious! I would be so sad that the food won't have any taste.

Offering them a chance to decide their last meal is definitely not an act of generosity...

Here's how it would go for me.

"What do you want for your last meal, Joe?"
"I'll have a large cuppa coffee and a piece of my mother's Irish bread."
"We'll get in touch with your mom."
"You can't. She died nearly three years ago."
"Well, Joe, you know, if your mother's passed on, you can't have that bread no more."
"You asked me a question. I gave you my answer. And you can't be shooting me or hanging me without my last meal request granted."
"Er"
"No, no, it's tradition. It's the way it's always been. It would be a violation of some sort as well as a sin. You yourself could be brought up on charges."
"Well, that might be true and it might not....."
"Oh, tis true, tis true and we have what we have, a verbal contract as it were, so go and tell the warden that the whole thing's off."

Off he goes and I take a nap.

A little while he reappears at my cell door.

"The warden says to tell you that you are going to be a bit hungry tomorrow morning when you sit down to have breakfast with your mother."