THE FASCINATION WITH A DEATH ROW PRISONER’S FINAL MEAL CHOICE

Final meal requests in Florida range from salami sandwiches to Jack Daniel's whiskey

Mail Online
January 26, 2014

A Death Row prisoner's choice of last meal fascinates like few other requests and has been the subject of a number of research projects in recent years.

Last year, artist Julie Green completed a 13-year project painting more than 500 Death Row final meals on to plates.

They included everything from cigarettes to pizza and tubs of ice cream. The most commonly ordered meals were fast food from KFC and McDonald’s.

Meanwhile, in October, the Orlando Sentinel explored the final meal choices of the Death Row inmates of Florida.

Before Panhandle Killer Arthur Rutherford was put to death in 2006, he requested some foods true to his southern locale. A deep fried feast of fried catfish, fried green tomatoes, fried eggplant and hush puppies were laid out for him before his lethal injection. Rutherford washed it down with sweet tea.

Clarence Hill, an attempted bank robber and police officer killer, asked for tacos. So did Angel Nieves Diaz, who murdered the owner of a Miami strip club while he and accomplices robbed it.

Oba Chandler, who raped and murdered an Ohio woman and her two teen daughters after they asked him for directions in 1989, asked for salami sandwiches and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

John Spenkelink got a special treat at his 1979 execution. Not only was he the first in Florida to be put to death following the Supreme Court’s reinstatement of the death penalty, but he also got to split a flask of Jack Daniel's whiskey with the prison superintendent.

Aileen Wuornos’ seven-man killing spree was immortalised in the 2003 film Monster, but her life came to an end the year before. She declined a last meal and instead drank just a cup of coffee nine hours before she was put to death.

Taking the opposite route was Allen Lee Davis, who murdered a pregnant woman in 1982 along with her two young daughters. He chose to have a smorgasbord of lobster tail, fried potatoes, a half-pound of fried shrimp, six ounces of fried clam strips, half a loaf of garlic bread and 32 ounces of A&W root beer.