ALABAMA LAST MEAL
Lynda Lyon Block
May 10, 2002

JUST CAUSE YA GOIN' KILL ME, DON'T MEAN I CAIN'T LOOK NICE

Block first woman executed since '57

LAST MEAL: None...a girl's gotta keep her figure! She consumed only water and milk.

THE SKINNY: Condemned for the 1993 shooting death of Opelika police Sgt. Roger Lamar Motley Jr. Block, 54, and George Sibley were convicted of capital murder in the death of Motley, who was shot repeatedly in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Sibley was also sentenced to death; his execution date hasn't been set. Block, a member of the patriot movement who believes the government is illegitimate and the State of Alabama does not exist, refused to file appeals to courts that she contended are biased and have no jurisdiction.

I FEEL PRETTY, OH SO PRETTY: Block wore a white prison outfit with her shaved head covered by a black hood. She wore light makeup, with mascara and a light shade of pink lipstick.

FACTOIDS: Block was the first woman to die in Alabama's electric chair in more than four decades. When the execution began a 2,050-volt, 20-second shock Block clenched her fists, her body tensed and steam came from the sponge on her head and the electrode on her left leg. She then received 250 volts for 100 seconds. Block could be the last person to die in Holman Prison's electric chair, known as "Yellow Mama." The Legislature in April made lethal injection the prime method of execution in Alabama. “Yellow Mama,” the state’s has been in use since 1927. On July 1, lethal injection becomes Alabama’s preferred method of execution, though inmates can still choose to be electrocuted.

Before Block, the last woman executed in Alabama was Rhonda Martin in 1957. She poisoned six family members.

IN THE ZONE: "She seemed to be somber, somewhat stoic," said Alabama Prison Comimssioner Mike Haley. "She never displayed any emotion throughout the very end. Her stare was a very blank stare, an emotionless stare."

SOUNDS OF SILENCE: She made no final statement

YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT: "I ask that my body not be desecrated by autopsy, for it is against my religious beliefs to desecrate a body," Block wrote in her will. State law requires an autopsy anyway.