The Politics of The Last Meal

Why have humans historically given a ritualistic last meal to condemned people?

The tradition of serving a condemned person a final meal has been around for centuries, though there has been debate among scholars about exactly when. In Ancient Rome, gladiators were fed a huge meal before being made to fight. since Ancient Greece. By 17th century London, condemned people with clout could have a final meal with friends, while most prisoners were stopped at a pub on their way to the gallows for a “great bowl of ale to drink at their pleasure, as their last refreshment in life.”

The meal was seen as a symbolic peace offering between the punisher and the punishee- (the correctional institution and the prisoner). By accepting the last meal, the condemned was thought to have forgiven everyone involved with his execution. This was important during superstitious times, when it was believed that a vengeful spirit could return from the dead to haunt those responsible for their death. Even when the condemned person was universally hated, a final meal was usually offered. For instance, the deposed king of France, Louis XVI, was given pan-fried chicken, pastries, boiled beef and puréed turnips, two chicken wings, vegetables, two glasses of wine, a piece of sponge cake, and a glass of wine.

The last meal has often been political. In 1992, the story of Ricky Ray Rector, an Arkansas-born man convicted of murder in 1981, came into the national spotlight. After a friend was denied entry at a restaurant in Conway, Arkansas because he couldn’t pay a $3 fee, 31-year old Ricky Ray shot three people, one of whom died. He spent three days on the run until his sister Stella and his mother convinced him to turn himself in. He agreed to surrender to Officer Robert Martin, a friend of the family. Instead, he shot and killed Martin as he chatted with his mother. He then went outside and shot himself in the head, obliterating his frontal lobe. He was then put on trial for the murders, despite his lawyers arguing that he was incompetent to stand trial from the damage, which amounted to a lobotomy.

The trial continued anyway and Ricky Ray was found guilty and sentenced to death by electrocution. His lawyers plead for clemency from Clinton, who wanted to appear tough on crime. Clinton had lost his re-election bid for Arkansas governor in 1980 after commuting 70 sentences during his first term. ACLU director Jay Jacobson said, “You can’t law-and- order Clinton . . . If you can kill Rector, you can kill anybody.” Still, his biggest supporters didn’t believe he would go through with it. Said one person quoted by the Guardian in 1993, “Nobody could believe that he would go through with it. You might as well execute a child.”

In the present day, states with legal capital punishment offer the condemned a chance to request a meal with restrictions. For example, in Florida, all meals must consist of locally-made foods and not exceed $40. Florida inmate Danny Rolling, aka the ‘Gainsville Ripper’ and inspiration for the Scream franchise, requested a lobster tail, butterfly shrimp, a baked potato, strawberry cheesecake, and sweet tea. In Illinois, John Wayne Gacy requested a bucket of KFC chicken, fried shrimp, french fries, and a pound of strawberries. In Indiana, the terrorist Timothy McVeigh ate two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Wrote Brent Cunningham, “last-meal requests are dominated by the country’s mass-market comfort foods: fries, soda, fried chicken, pie. Sprinkled in this mix is a lot of what social scientists call “status foods”—steak, lobster, shrimp—the kinds of foods that in popular culture conjure up the image of affluence.“

Texas discontinued final meal requests in 2011 after murderer Lawrence Russell Brewer requested a plate of two chicken-fried steaks with gravy and sliced onions, a triple-patty bacon cheeseburger, a bowl of fried okra with ketchup, a pound of barbecued meat with half of a loaf of white bread, a portion of three fajitas, a meat-lover’s pizza (topped with pepperoni, ham, beef, bacon, and sausage), a pint of Blue Bell, a serving of ice cream, a slab of peanut-butter fudge with crushed peanuts, and a serving equivalent to three root beers.... and didn't eat a single thing. He fucked it up for every prisoner being executed in Texas after him, and now they must eat whatever is being served in the cafeteria. In states where prisoners still make requests, they don’t always get what they ask for.

For a more detailed history, check out this stellar article.

Learn more about the Death Penalty in the 1990s in this video: