MONDAY MORNING BRIEFING....

An addition, a good story and a follow-up....

AN ADDITION

Eagle-eyed reader Kris noticed that the last words for Robbie Lyons were incomplete. It should read...

"It is from Allah that I come and it is to Allah that I return. If my death brings another person happiness, then I'm happy for them."

Thanks, Kris. We need all the help we can get.

A GOOD STORY

We want to share this story that Bill S. of Indiana, sent in. It is straight out of the "The Front Page/My Girl Friday" school of reporting....

I am a retired newspaperman. I know of a reporter who many years ago was covering an execution. The doomed man ordered a steak, potatoes, salad and such, but when the meal arrived, the convict, suffering a case of nerves, lost his appetite. After the execution took place, the reporter stole back to the man's cell on death row and ate the meal.

Ah, that fourth estate....

A FOLLOW-UP...

From last week...

Will S. writes...

....Finally, I did not easily find the famous story of the Texas man who asked for his meal to be fed to a homeless person. This should be featured on every site like yours....

We comply...

Robert Madden, Texas (natch), was executed on 5/28/1997 for the murder of two men. He asked that final meal be provided to a homeless person

We were unable to find out if that request was fulfilled.

Happily, Will S. followed-up on the fate of this culinary gesture. Adding, "I have to say this man is my hero. Obviously, a state who would execute a man who has real compassion demonstrates the futility of capital punishment. I know I couldn't pull the switch on a man who made this last request."

Will sent in an article of an art show review. One of the artist did a quasidocumentary on last meals and toward the end of the review, Mr. Madden was mentioned....

Robert Anthony Madden asked that a meal be given to a homeless person instead of him. (The request was denied.)

The request was denied.