ALABAMA LAST MEAL
GARY LEON BROWN
April 24, 2003

least culpable, but culpable nonetheless...

Last Meal: Brown requested no last meal, eating only an ice cream sandwich from a vending machine.

The skinny: Gary Leon Brown was executed for the stabbing death of a gay man who was nearly decapitated during a robbery.

Gay Bashers: The victim, described in trial testimony as a homosexual, was stabbed 78 times. Prosecutors said the savageness of the attack indicated the killing may not have been simply a robbery, but it was not prosecuted as a hate crime against a gay victim. The victim's body was left in the mobile home, where he lived alone, until it was found by neighborhood children. He had been robbed of $67 and several appliances.

Wash in the blood of the lamb: Brown was known on Alabama's death row for his religious evangelism. A former prison chaplain who counseled Brown and testified at his clemency hearing, said Brown "made a terrible mistake, as many people make mistakes. I can guarantee you he's real in his commitment to Christ." A Monday night church service began in 1989 on death row. "That service has continued uninterrupted all these years. Gary has been there every Monday night since it started," said the chaplin.

The final day: Brown's mother, wife, son, two sisters, a brother and his spiritual adviser made final visits with the inmate Thursday morning. Brown sang hymns, had communion and prayed with his visitors. He gave three Bibles, letters and $109.92 from his prison account to his wife and a watch and wooden cross to his son. The rest of his belongings, a radio, headphones, books, a dictionary and a television went to the remaining Death Row inmates.

Last words and such: Brown made no public statement but kept his eyes locked on his wife who was just feet away in the witness room, separated by a glass window. For about 5 minutes they mouthed exchanges to each other, including "I love you" and "Go with God." Strapped to a gurney, he waved to her with the fingers of his left hand. "Goodbye sweetie," he mouthed. "I love you."

Partners in crime: Brown's attorney had petitioned the governor for clemency, in part, because one of Brown's two cohorts in the killing was paroled, and the other - who cut the victim's throat with a butcher knife- is serving a term of life without parole following a retrial.

She called Brown the "least culpable" of the three killers.

Factoids: Brown spent 16 years on Alabama's Death Row. Brown was pronounced dead after a series of seven injections.

DME.COM Reader Last Meals

Pokey straps on the feed bag...and where does one find a six-pack of p****???

pokey j., from arlington, va, april 22, 2003

the menu: 1 dozen maryland alpha-male blue crabs steamed with old bay. 1 angry four pound lobster, preferably named Pinchy, boiled. 6 choice large scallops wrapped in amish bacon, sauteed in butter and organic garlic to perfection. 1/4 pound jumbo peel and eat shrimp (warm) with cocktail sauce. 3 pounds gourmet butter, melted. 1 eighteenth century italian marble crab hammer. 1 roll super absorbent paper towels (brawny will do). 1 spiffy lobster bib. 1 amish bacon wrapped filet mignon, medium. 1 large bowl of homemade fettuccini alfredo. 1 loaf hearth-baked italian bread with oil and seasoning for dipping. 1 appropriate dipping plate. 1 tossed organic dinner salad with italian dressing. 1 shaker each salt and pepper. 1 six pack of coke. 1 case heineken cold. 1 pack marlboro lights. 1 appropriate place setting- linens, candles, ambiance, music and lighting. For dessert, 1 steak and cheese plain with extra cheese from Giovanni's. 1 six pack pussy.


Timmy D keeps it real...no ice cream preference noted...just ice cream...

timmy d. from parts unkown, april 22, 2003

the menu: 7 pizza pies, 4 mountain dews, 8 tubs of ice cream


Lillian with some Tab...Do they still make Tab? I recall it as the most unpleasant drink ever.

lillian, from new york, april 22, 2003

the menu: 1 or 2 slices of thin crust extra cheese pizza and two Tabs, peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wonder bread with milk, coffee ice-cream with chocolate sauce.

TEXAS LAST MEAL
JUAN CHAVEZ
April 22, 2003

The thrill killer is gone, the thrill killer is gone away...

Last Meal: None requested.

The skinny: Chavez, a parolee, nicknamed "The Thrill Killer," was said to have killed at least a dozen people in Dallas during a four-month SPREE was executed. Chavez received a lethal injection for the murder of his first of the victim. Chavez was only charged in one murder although he was linked to 11 more slayings during his trial.

Final words and such: In his final statement, Chavez apologized to the victim's families. "To the media, I would like you to tell all the victims and their loved ones that I am truly, truly sorry for taking their loved ones' lives," he said. "And I hope they will find it in their heart to forgive me for what I did to them. I am a different person now, but that does not change the fact of the bad things I have committed."

Seek and ye shall find: Chavez had always maintained his innocence but he became a born-again Christian on death row.

SPREE! Chavez was on parole for a 1986 murder when he killed thw victim during a robbery at a phone booth. Prosecutors said five people were killed on that day, the bloodiest day of the spree that began in March.

Lawyer talk: The former prosecutor said that he would never forget that Chavez grinned when the judge sentenced him to death.

"What separates this guy from others I tried is, he derived a great deal of pleasure from killing," he said. "For some, it's greed, a desire for money. This one, to have already been through the prison system for murder, to have been paroled, then to start this spree, shooting in the face, running over the bodies, there just seemed to be a twisted side to him that you don't encounter in real life. He really does stand apart."

Factoid: Chavez was the 13th convicted killer executed this year in Texas and the 302nd since the state restored the death penalty in 1982.