TEXAS LAST MEAL
MELVIN WAYNE WHITE
November 3, 2005

...Warning: This is a bad one....

Last Meal: For his last meal, White requested a four egg Spanish omelets with gravy and hash brown potatoes on the side, six pieces of buttered toast, a gallon of milk, sliced peppers, onion rings, french fries, a cheeseburger, a pork chop and gravy, fried chicken, six slices of bread, a pitcher of ice, two Cokes, peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream.

The skinny: White was executed for the abduction, sexual assault and murder of a 9-year-old girl.

More skinny: White abducted his 9-year-old neighbor from a neighborhood summer barbeque, bound her hands with electrical tape, drove her to a deserted area north of Ozona, took her behind a water tank, sexually assaulted her, then killed her by striking her six to seven times on the head with a tire tool. Witnesses observed White driving a truck with a young girl in the passenger seat shortly before midnight the evening of the barbecue. White was arrested and confessed to the murder, directing police to the body.

At trial, the jury learned that prior to the capital murder, White had assaulted his underaged daughter, forced her to perform oral sex, and raped her. White also offered his daughter $50 per week if she would provide him with sexual favors on demand. White had also fondled the genitals of a four-year-old female cousin and grabbed the breast of an unrelated teenaged girl visiting his home.

Leading up to: In a death row interview last week, White, 55, acknowledged the slaying, expressed regrets, said he didn't want to die but figured the state was doing him a favor by executing him. "I look at it as relief, just to get out of here," he said. "I've got to live with this for the rest of my life. It's not an easy deal to do."

Last words and such: White apologized to the mother of his young victim: “Tell Beth and them I am sorry, truly sorry for the pain that I caused your family. I truly mean that, too. She was a friend of mine and I betrayed her trust.” White then recited the 23rd Psalm and the Lords Prayer before saying, “All right, warden. Let's give them what they want.” As the drugs began taking effect, he remarked, "I can taste it."

Factoids: White was the....

46th murderer executed in U.S. in 2005
990th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
16th murderer executed in Texas in 2005
352nd murderer executed in Texas since 1976

In May 2003, the girl's father, shot himself to death, a suicide the slain girl's grandmother, blamed on the loss of his daughter. “He just couldn't handle it.”

This would have been the girl's senior year of high school.

Three more convicted killers are set to die over the next two weeks.