TEXAS LAST MEAL
PETER J. MINIEL
October 6, 2004

..."Left Behind"...

Last Meal: 20 beef tacos, 20 beef enchiladas, two double cheeseburgers, a pizza with jalapenos, fried chicken, spaghetti with salt, half of a chocolate cake and half of a vanilla cake, cookies and cream ice cream, carmel pecan fudge ice cream, a small fruit cake, two Coca-Colas, two Pepsi-Colas, two root beers and two orange juices.

The skinny: Miniel, 42, was executed for the beating and stabbing death of a Houston man, 18 years ago.

Miniel has confessed to the crime, in which he and a co-defendant attacked the victim, striking him in the head with a heavy glass beer mug, stabbing him 39 times in the neck and back and beating him about the head with an automobile shock absorber. The two made off after the murder with a stereo system and $20. They then went to eat at a Burger King.

Miniel had welcomed the execution and asked his attorney to file no more appeals. "I'm ready for them to get me," Miniel said in a recent interview. "I'm ready to pay the price."

<>Miniel pleaded not guilty at his 1988 trial, while his partner pleaded guilty and testified against him in exchange for a 50-year sentence. The jury convicted Miniel of murder after five minutes' deliberation. Miniel has told Texas newspapers in recent weeks that he lied at his trial and is guilty of the murder. <>

Leading up to...In the weeks leading up to his execution, Miniel completed the Christian book series "Left Behind." He asked that the state take care of his body after his execution, as not to burden his family.

Last words and such: "Into your hands, O Lord, I commence my spirit. Amen. I'm ready." As the drugs began taking effect, he said he felt a burning sensation.

Factoids: Miniel was the...

47th murderer executed in U.S. in 2004
932nd murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
15th murderer executed in Texas in 2004
328th murderer executed in Texas since 1976