DME MEDIA ALERT!

A home run of an article by Ms. Rachel Graves.


Ordinary or odd, last meal can tell inmate's story
By RACHEL GRAVES
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

HUNTSVILLE -- The smell of fried food lingered in the Texas death house as Richard Head Williams was strapped to the gurney for his February execution.

Williams, a Houston murderer, requested a mammoth last meal of two chili cheese dogs, two cheeseburgers, two orders of onion rings, french fries, chocolate cake, apple pie, butter pecan ice cream, egg rolls, one peach, three Dr Peppers and jalapeño peppers. It was served two hours before he was killed.

Facing lethal injection, death row inmates make requests ranging from the strange (a jar of dill pickles) to the ethereal ("justice, equality and world peace").

But in the end, prison officials say, most simply want a cheeseburger.

Last meal requests -- windows into the thoughts of the rare people who know precisely how and when they will die -- fascinate the public.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice posts final meal requests dating back 21 years, and officials say the list is the most popular part of their Web site. Brian Price, a former Texas prisoner who prepared 171 final meals in Huntsville, is publishing a cookbook called Meals to Die For. And a California man recently started a Web site documenting the last meal requests of prisoners across the country.

"We live in such a clean world," said Mike Randleman of Santa Monica, Calif., founder of deadmaneating.com. "We like to glimpse at the dark side from the safety of our home."

His Web site features a drawing of a hanging stick figure, a dripping ice cream cone in its hand.

Read, as they say, the whole thing....

APRIL'S RESERVATIONS...

subject, as always, to change....

3 Scott Hain --Oklahoma
8 Don Hawkins Jr.--Oklahoma
9 Earl Bramblett--Virginia
15 Kenneth Morris--Texas
17 Larry Jackson--Oklahoma
22 Juan Chavez--Texas
23 Robert Ladd--Texas
24 Gary Brown--Alabama
29 David Brewer--Ohio

OKLAHOMA LAST MEAL
SCOTT ALLEN HAIN
April 3, 2003

Dead Kid Murderer No. 2 Walking....

Last Meal: three cheeseburgers, three orders of onion rings and a slush drink.

The Skinny: Hain was executed for burning two people alive in a car trunk when he was 17. He and another man received death sentences for kidnapping the couple and stuffing them into the trunk of a car that they then set on fire. Hain had blamed his involvement on his youth.

Definately Not Socs: Hain told the state Pardon and Parole Board in his clemency hearing Monday that he had acted under the control of Robert Lambert, the 21-year-old he met on Tulsa's streets.

Broke-Ass Defense: Hain's lawyer said he could not present a credible case for clemency because he hadn't been able to prepare it, including bringing in experts to testify, because of lack of funds.

SPREE!!! The murders ended what authorities said was a four-month crime spree by Hain and Lambert. The two men were accused of sexually assaulting two Kansas women and later attacking a Tulsa couple, permanently injuring the man with a blow from a claw hammer and sexually assaulting and beating the woman. Hain denied involvement in those attacks and was not tried for them after his conviction in the murders.

Bad Dreams, Poor kid: The lawyer said Hain was "very remorseful," talking about his regrets, describing haunting nightmares and dreams of trying to open the trunk but burning his hands.

No words: He had no final statement.


CLARIFICATON NEEDED: From the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma in a statement."Given Hain's age at the time of the crime, his execution would be contrary to American standards of justice, fairness and decency, which punish according to the degree of culpability and reserve the death penalty for the 'worst of the worst' offenders." Would burning three people alive in a truck of a car qualify it as "worst of the worst?" Dear ACLU of OK, how many people do you need to burn alive to make met this "worst of the worst" standard?

Factoids: The United States is one of the few countries that allow executions people who were 16 or 17 when they killed. Oklahoma has now tied Missouri for third in the standings, knotted up at 60.

TEXAS LAST MEAL
JAMES COLBURN
March 26, 2003

Mentally gone....

Last Meal: a Mexican Lunch: tortillas, tacos, burritos, Spanish rice, cheese dips, chips, six Cokes, and chocolate cake.

The skinny: Colburn was executed for the murder and attempted rape of a woman. Colburn stabbed and strangled the victim in his apartment after attempting to rape her. He later told a sheriff's officer that he had found her hitchhiking near his apartment when she asked for a drink of water. He invited her inside his apartment and attempted to rape her. When she resisted, he choked her until she passed out, then he stabbed her in the neck with a knife. . Colburn had been in mental institutions at least twice and in and out of prisons numerous times for robbery, burglary, assault and arson. Colburn murdered Murphy on June 26, 1994, in his apartment near Conroe. Murphy, 55, was hitchhiking on a street outside Colburn's apartment

Last words and such: "I know it was a mistake, I have no one to blame but myself," he said. "It's no big deal about choosing right from wrong. I pray that everyone involved overlooks the stupidity. Everybody has problems and I won't be a part of the problem anymore. I can quit worrying now, it was all a mistake." As the lethal drug cocktail coursed through his veins, Colburn said: "I can start to feel it now -- it's going to be like passing out on drugs."

Schizo....Mental health advocates argued that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling against the execution of the mentally retarded should have applied to Colburn but two court-appointed psychiatrists said he understood his punishment. Colburn had suffered from schizophrenia for the past 20 years and his condition had worsened in recent months, according to his attorney, James Rytting, who said his client had the reasoning ability of a 10-year-old.

Factoid: Colburn was the 12th convicted killer executed this year in Texas and the 301st since the state restored the death penalty in 1982. Texas remains on a pace to top the record 40 carried out in 2000.

Close call: The high court stopped Colburn's scheduled execution November 6, one minute before he could have been moved to the death chamber.