Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Reader's Last Meal...post Tookie version...

John of Austin, Texas

My final meal:

Huevos Rancheros
10 pieces of eel sushi
10 pieces of salmon sushi
2 slices of new york style cheese pizza
6 frosted brown sugar/cinnamon pop tarts served cold (not toasted)
4 Doubletree Hotel chocolate chip cookies
1 pack of Red Vines licorice (red)
1 pint of Coffee Ice Cream
1 2-liter of Diet Pepsi


Annie D.
Fightin' Texas Aggie class of 2009!

For starters I suppose I'd have to go with my favourite meal: a Deleware Subs small roast beef with mayo, lettuce, tomato, provolone, onions, and oil-and-spice, with a side of Miss Vicki's barbeque potatoe chips and a Pepsi with no ice. This would be followed by a Maine lobster tail and Alaskan king crab legs, accompanied by a dish of clarified butter and a side of garlic mashed potatoes. Next, a creamy, heavenly bowl of angelhair pasta swimming in alfredo sauce from Bambino Huey's, along with one of their strawberry Napoleons and a cup of their famous vanilla creme brulee. Grandma's pot roast would be next, (good luck getting it for me, Grandma passed away in 2002!), along with a generous helping of her chopped broccoli with "oleo", as she called it, and her "noodles and browned bread." Mummy's peanut butter cookies would be a nice snack between courses, these courses hopefully being spead out over the course of the day, since I do not eat very much or often normally. I would request to not take my medications on that day also, since they supress my appetite and I wish to savour every last bite of this feast. (That and I won't need birth control or ADD meds when I'm dying!) A slice of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory and a scoop of Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate ice cream would round off the meal. Lastly, a steaming cup of German pfefferminz tea, preferably imported from Bavaria, and two cubes of sugar would be provided, served in a teacup with a saucer and spoon, which is the only way to drink tea. After that little lot, I'll soon be fast asleep, so bring it on!


Reader's Note: It appears that people who really like sushi are immune from death row!

N.


Lori of Colorado

Final Meal: Barbecue chicken, mash potatoes with gravy, corn on cob, salad with bleu cheese, rolls, ice tea and lemon merange pie.


Nick F of parts unknown....

The Menu: Nothing too fancy... A lot of Cheese!

Bacon cheeseburger w/ extra mayo and onions

Six "three mile lsland" wings from Hooter's (all drumettes)

French fries (extra crispy) w/ lots of ketchup

Six fried mozerella sticks w/ piping hot marinara sauce

Small, deep-dish, ham and pineapple pizza w/ extra sauce and extra cheese

Cup of spicy homemade chili w/ beans

Spinach and romaine lettuce salad w/ fresh tomatos, sprouts, and blue cheese dressing

Bowl of shredded chedder/jack cheese

One pint of Ben and Jerry's mint chocholate chip ice cream

One slice of hot apple pie topped w/ a slice of melted chedder cheese

Pitcher of strong, unsweetened iced tea w/ fresh lemons

One extra cold can of Coca-Cola




dd's last meal

p****
a can of coke
m&m's


Hank H. of Cantwell Parts Dept

I would have the following:

1 quart of pinto beans
1 quart of sauerkraut
12 hard-boiled eggs
10 White Castle Cheeseburgers
1 pound of onion rings
Half gallon of prune juice...

Once the body relaxes, and the bowels let loose,
I would have the last laugh.

CALIFORNIA LAST MEAL
STANLEY "TOOKIE" WILLIAMS
December 13, 2005

...turning a monster into a martyr...

Last Meal: Williams had nothing but oatmeal and milk all day, refusing the privilege of a special last meal.

The skinny: Williams was executed by lethal injection for four 1979 Los Angeles-area murders that he denied committing.

More skinny: On Wednesday, February 28, 1979, around 4 a.m., defendant Stanley Williams and a companion were in one car traveling with the co-defendant and another companion. They were running low on gas and decided to rob a store. They stopped at a 7-Eleven market at 10437 Whittier Boulevard in Whittier and all four entered the market. The attendant was sweeping the parking lot and was herded into the store by the defendant and one of the companions. While one of the companions emptied the cash register drawer and took $120, Williams took the victim into the back room, told him to get on his knees and then shot him twice in the back with a shotgun.

On Sunday, March 11, 1979, at about 5:30 a.m., Williams, accompanied by another man, broke down the door and entered a hotel in Los Angeles and shot to death a 76-year old man, his 63-year old wife and their 43-year old daughter. He took about $50 in cash and left.

Williams and Raymond Washington co-founded the Crips, a street gang, in 1971.

The trial and the jail-time...the early years: Williams, convicted and sentenced to death in 1981, maintained that he was railroaded by witnesses who lied in exchange for leniency in their own criminal cases, by a faulty ballistics test, and by a prosecutor who removed three African Americans from the jury and told jurors that seeing Williams in court was like observing a Bengal tiger in a zoo.

After the jury read their guilty verdict Williams, according to transcripts, looked to jurors and mouthed: "I'm going to get each and every one of you motherf------."

He remained a violent man during his early years in prison, assaulting inmates and guards and spending six years in solitary confinement, from 1988 to 1994. But as he later described it, during that period he began reading widely and reflecting on his life, and resolved to prevent gang violence.

New Tookie: Williams taped a message from prison in April 1993 that was broadcast to Los Angeles gang members at a "peace summit.'' With the help of Barbara Becnel, a writer he met in prison who became his champion, he started work on eight books for children that were published in 1996 as a series called, "Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence.'' He followed with "Life in Prison'' in 1998 and a memoir, "Blue Rage, Black Redemption,'' in 2004 and was working on two more books before his execution. He spoke regularly from prison to youths and educators, and posted a model "peace protocol'' for gangs, which supporters say was widely used, on his Web site in 2000. "Redemption,'' a television movie starting Jamie Foxx in a sympathetic portrayal of Williams, aired in 2004.

Legal Machinations: State and federal courts rejected each of his appeals, although federal judges described the evidence as less than airtight, and a three-judge federal panel said he might be a worthy candidate for clemency.

Last Minute Machinations: Despite persistent pleas for mercy from around the globe, the governor earlier in the day had said Williams was unworthy of clemency because he had not admitted his brutal shotgun murders of four people during two robberies 26 years ago. After the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request for a last-minute stay Monday evening, the co-founder of the infamous Crips street gang — who insisted he was innocent of the murders — became the 12th man executed by the state of California since voters reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

In a strongly worded rejection of Williams’ request for clemency, Schwarzenegger said he saw no need to rehash or second-guess the many court decisions already rendered in the case, and he questioned the death row inmate’s claims of atonement. Williams, the governor said in a statement, never admitted guilt, plotted to kill law enforcement officers after his capture, and made little mention in his writings of the scourge of gang killings, which the statement called "a tragedy of our modern culture."

Leading up to: Behind the prison’s thick walls, Williams passed his dwindling hours quietly, visiting with friends and talking on the telephone while under constant watch by guards. An acquaintance described him sitting at a table, handcuffed, next to untouched turkey sandwiches, bidding goodbye to friends in an ordinary, everyday manner. A prison spokesman said Williams was calm and upbeat, though he ate nothing but oatmeal and milk all day, refusing the privilege of a special last meal. Williams also declined a spiritual advisor.

At 6 p.m., Williams was strip-searched, given a set of clean clothes and placed in a holding cell steps from the death chamber under nonstop observation by a sergeant and two officers. Officials said he spent the evening watching TV and reading some of the roughly 50 letters that arrived Monday from as far as Italy and Israel — including some from schoolchildren. Many of them said they were praying for him. Nearby, the injection team began its final preparations in the prison’s converted gas chamber, ensuring that the required needles, tubes and chemicals were in place.

Williams, who earlier said he didn’t want to invite anyone to observe "the sick and perverted spectacle," had five witnesses. Officials designated a total of 39 witnesses, including 17 media representatives.

He also did not request a sedative before the execution, though one was available.

As journalists waited, "Monday Night Football" played on a small TV. Others flipped through the press package prepared by the San Quentin Press. It opened with three pages of pictures of the young victim, followed by pictures of his dead body, lying in a pool of blood next to empty Pepsi cans. On another page that addressed Williams' Nobel Prize nomination, the booklet explained that over 140 nominations are submitted each year and that former nominees have included Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini.

Last words and such: During the execution, the inmate’s friend Barbara Becnel and other supporters mouthed "God bless you" and "We love you" and blew kisses to Williams. Williams also seemed to mouth statements to Becnel. The entire procedure took longer than usual. The execution team took about 12 minutes to find a vein in Williams’ muscular left arm. While the personnel were probing, Williams repeatedly lifted his head off the gurney, winced visibly, and at one point appeared to say: "Still can’t find it?"

After Williams was pronounced dead, Becnel and two other supporters of Williams turned toward the media in the witness room and yelled in unison, "The state of California just killed an innocent man!"

Factoids: Williams was the...

59th murderer executed in U.S. in 2005
1003rd murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
2nd murderer executed in California in 2005
12th murderer executed in California since 1976

As night descended Monday, about 2,000 demonstrators who gathered on a tree-lined street leading to the gates of San Quentin State Prison endured frosty temperatures to protest the execution while a few motorists shouted from their car windows, "Kill him." Joan Baez sang "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" as speakers urged participants to keep fighting. Small clumps of people in scarves and gloves held candles and sang hymns, while others wandered off alone, gazing into the bay. Some sang "We Shall Overcome," although a girl sitting on top of a trailer said, "I don't believe that. I'm not singin'.

A few death penalty supporters also turned out at San Quentin. Scuffles and shoving matches broke out on occasion, but no serious incidents were reported.

A portrait photographer, attended by a pair of assistants, had set up a street side studio where he was shooting demonstrators who posed in the lotus position against a white backdrop. "This is beautiful, absolutely beautiful," he said. Next to him, a small group of men were clustered around a banner that said "QUEERS AGAINST EXECUTION." A man selling hot chocolate was being pursued by a man with a "SAVE TOOKIE" sign, shouting "You fascist bastard."

Outside the gates of San Quentin as midnight approached, speakers urged calm. There was a moment of tension when a Williams’ friend, Fred Jackson, told the crowd, "It’s all over." Angry shouts broke out. A woman sobbed on someone’s shoulder.

A Native American man on the other side of the street held a large upside-down American flag with a white swastika painted in the blue field of stars. He was shouting at the "white maggots" who had defiled his land, who had oppressed and enslaved his people. He yelled at the blond news anchors below him, "You're all immigrants. This is my land you've been poisoning for the last 500 years." He lighted the flag on fire as a black woman told him he shouldn't do that, that he should have more pride in this nation. He responded that it was time for a "true indigenous people's revolution." Then the white picket fence he was holding onto broke and he fell down the small embankment. Then the people he'd been arguing with lifted him up and asked him if he was OK. "Yeah," he said. "I'm OK.".

Williams’ son, Stanley Williams Jr., who is in High Desert State Prison serving a 16-year sentence for second-degree murder, will be notified in person of his father’s death by a chaplain and mental health specialist, prison officials said. The younger Williams is in isolation for disciplinary problems, and would not normally have access to any news source.

No capital case in the state had stirred such national and international attention since Caryl Chessman -- like Williams, an author of books from Death Row -- was executed in the gas chamber in 1960 for rape and kidnapping.

In a major surprise: The execution of convicted murderer Stanley (Tookie) Williams in California outraged many in Europe.

In Graz, Schwarzenegger's hometown, local Greens said they would file a petition to remove the governor's name from the southern city's Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium. A Christian political group went even further, suggesting it be renamed the "Stanley Tookie Williams Stadium."

Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, called it "a sad day" and said the city would keep Williams in its memory the next time it celebrated a victory against the death penalty somewhere in the world. Rome's Colosseum, once the arena for deadly gladiator combat and executions, has become a symbol of Italy's anti-death penalty stance. Since 1999, the monument has been bathed in golden light every time a death sentence is commuted somewhere in the world or a country abolishes capital punishment. "I hope there will be such an occasion soon," Veltroni said in a statement. "When it happens, we will do it with a special thought for Tookie."

Monday, December 12, 2005

READER'S LAST MEALS....PRE-TOOKIE VERSION...


Sofia H. from parts unknown...

I´ll have one burger with fries and a steak with barbecue sauce and roasted onions. A can of Kentucky fried chicken, a slice of kebabpizza, some fried chicken with curry sauce and a large coke. Then you can execute me all you want, Texas! Ha!


Diane from Beltsville, MD

2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Tall glass of whole milk
Chicken and dumplings
Crabcake
Rootbeer float
cigarette

Cara R. from parts unknown...

t-bone steak with a large order of mashed potatoes with brown gravy, a large order of french fries from McDonalds, three Mountain Dews, a blooming onion, cheese sticks with marinara, Julio's chips with hot sauce,and a marlboro.


no meal requested

idiot jerk from somewhere


AEgean MEdusa, Brooklyn New York

An 8oz Steak with steaksause, mash potatoes, corn, a piece of corn
bread, a small Sushi Set (with some eel, some crab rolls, sashimi, with
soy sauce and wasabi), Oo-Long Tead with HOney, and a Mountain Dew Code
Red...

..followed by one New Port 100 Cigarette



JoanneVL from parts unknown....

If I am ever convicted of killing anyone and facing death by state mandate, I'd be too indisposed to actually eat. But...if I know I am going to die and can have a choice about my last meal, I choose this:
Please provide candles, lavender roses in a silver bowl, Irish linen damask tablecloth and napkins; Kirk Repousse' silver flatware as well as silver serving dishes; Waterford Crystal, Kinsale pattern; and Wedgwood China, Icing pattern.

Watercress salad with apple vinaigrette dressing

Sherry-roasted Rock Cornish game hen w/ wild rice and Asparagus Hollandaise
Krug champagne (make an exception about the liquor, please) and please chill the glass.

Strawberries

Teaberry Ice Cream (available at Heisler's Cloverleaf Dairy Farm in Pennsylvania)

Rose tea (not rose hip; rose)

Bailey's Irish Cream Liqueur

And, just before they strap me down, a cup of Lavender tea, please. I shan't need a sedative as Lavender tea is very calming.

Please allow me time to write thank-you notes to the chef and the attendants for my last meal's service before bringing in the Lavender tea.

MARYLAND LAST MEAL
WESLEY EUGENE BAKER
December 4, 2005

Last Meal: Baker had a final meal of breaded fish, pasta marinara, green beans, orange fruit punch, bread and milk.

The skinny: Baker was executed for the shooting of a woman to death at a Baltimore County mall while two of her grandchildren looked on.

More skinny: The victim was 49 years old, married with three children and six grandchildren. She worked as a teacher's aide at a local elementary school. She went to the Westview Mall near Baltimore with her two grandchildren. As they were entering their car in the parking lot to leave, the woman was approached by Baker, who put a gun to her head and fired once, killing her.

Baker stole her purse which police said contained $10 in cash, then jumped into a blue truck which fled the scene. A witness followed the Blazer out of the lot and recorded the license plate number, then returned to the mall, informing police. Police spotted the vehicle and gave chase. The Blazer stopped abruptly and a passenger, later identified by the witness as Baker, fled on foot. The driver, Gregory Lawrence, was arrested. Baker was arrested a short time later, found to have blood on his shoe, sock, and leg.

Subsequent testing revealed that the blood was Tyson's. Officers also found Tyson's purse and wallet in the path of Baker's flight. The firearm used in the shooting was recovered from the Blazer, and fingerprints from Baker's right hand were found on the driver's side of Tyson's vehicle. Lawrence was also convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole.

Leading up to: All day long, Baker had visited with friends and family. He had spoken to others by telephone. According to his lawyers, he talked about movies and memories. They said he again expressed remorse for the shooting that left a 49-year-old grandmother dying on a mall parking lot in front of her grandchildren. He joked that he still needed to lose 40 pounds.

Last words and such: At 9:07 p.m., the lights went out. A prison official cleared his throat. A shadow appeared at the window behind the curtains. At 9:08 p.m., they opened. There were no last words. No one asked Baker whether he wished to say something. The Rev. Charles Canterna -- a priest known as "Father Chuck" who ministers to parishioners at St. Vincent DePaul Roman Catholic Church and to inmates at the Supermax prison, including those on death row -- stood beside Baker. He touched the condemned man's forehead and his chest, nodding his head in prayer. He stepped back near the back wall.

Factoids: Baker was the...

58th murderer executed in U.S. in 2005
1002nd murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
1st murderer executed in Maryland in 2005
5th murderer executed in Maryland since 1976

About 50 death penalty opponents protested the execution outside under light snow. Minutes before 9 p.m. they began to sing "Amazing Grace," and at the appointed execution time of 9 p.m., they broke into "This Little Light of Mine all around death row, I'm going to let it shine." (Ed. Note: We asked for a better song and we got it. Though we can't see how you can get all those words in the first line).

At one point, inmates inside the facility started a chant of their own -- "Don't kill him! Don't kill him!" -- that was audible on the street below. The silhouettes of their fists pumping in the air could be seen through a window in the building's upper reaches.

Baker's execution was carried out despite the efforts of death penalty foes, who said the state has yet to fully review a 2003 study of capital punishment in Maryland that concluded race and geography play roles in how death sentences are meted out in the state. The case of Baker, a black man convicted of killing a white victim in Baltimore County, fit many of the purported disparities revealed by the study.

SOUTH CAROLINA LAST MEAL
SHAWN PAUL HUMPHRIES
December 2, 2005

...Humphries would have preferred to have been the 1,000th person executed...

Last Meal: Humphries requested a McDonald's hamburger, french fries, broccoli and cheese, oat cereal, and a Dr. Pepper.

The skinny: Humphries was put to death for the1994 murder of a store clerk.

More skinny: Humphries and accomplice Eddie Blackwell drank beer together for most of the day, then entered a Max-Saver convenience store with the intention of robbing the store. The owner of the store, asked Humphries whether he wanted anything. Humphries flashed a gun he had stolen the night before and replied he wanted money. There was some evidence to suggest the man then reached under the counter to get a gun. When he reached under the counter, Humphries fired a shot in the man's direction and fled from the store. The bullet fired by Humphries struck the owner in the head, killing him. Blackwell slumped to the ground in the store and was arrested. Humphies was apprehended later that day and immediately confessed. The crime was captured on videotape.

Blackwell was also convicted of murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Leading up to: Humphries' lawyer said that he would have preferred to have been the 1,000th person executed nationwide since the death penalty was reinstated, so that his death would be a milestone. "In his view, No. 1,000 is sort of a landmark," the lawyer said.

Humphries requested permission to watch "The Wizard of Oz" and was given a TV and VCR, his lawyer brought him the videotape Friday morning. Officials said he played the tape, though he spent much of the time talking to family and friends on the phone and eating a last meal including a McDonald's hamburger and a Dr. Pepper.

Last words and such: Before the curtains opened at 6:03 p.m., the victim's widow looked toward other family members and whispered "I can't do it," and walked out of the viewing area without witnessing her husband's killer be put to death.

Then Humphries' attorney read a one-and-a-half-page handwritten statement from the death chamber before the execution in which Humphries apologized for the killing and used Bible verses to criticize the death penalty. "I hope that my execution brings the Smith family some peace," he wrote. "But now I want to say something to everyone who supports this or any execution. We are all sinners, so what gives you the right as a sinner to take away a gift that God gave?"

At the end of the statement, Humphries looked toward the victim's sisters and mouthed "I'm sorry." One sister nodded in response. It appeared that a tear rolled down Humphries' cheek after the exchange.

Factoids: Humphries was the...

57th murderer executed in U.S. in 2005
1001st murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
3rd murderer executed in South Carolina in 2005
35th murderer executed in South Carolina since 1976

NORTH CAROLINA LAST MEAL
KENNETH LEE BOYD
December 2, 2005

...1,000...

Last Meal: Boyd requested a medium-well New York strip steak, a baked potato with sour cream, a roll with butter, a salad with ranch dressing and a Pepsi. Officials said he was pleased with his last meal.

The skinny: Boyd was executed for gunning down his estranged wife and father-in-law 17 years ago

More skinny: Boyd and his wife had an extremely stormy marriage for 13 years before she left and moved herself and her children in with her father. Boyd repeatedly stalked her, once handing one of their sons a bullet and a note to give his mother that said the bullet was intended for her.

On March 4, 1988 Boyd drove around with his boys, telling them that he was going to go and kill everyone at his father-in-law's home. When they arrived, he entered the home and shot and killed both his wife and her father with a .357 Magnum pistol. One of the woman's sons was pinned under his mother's body as Boyd continued to fired at her. The child scrambled out from beneath his mom's body and wriggled under a nearby bed to escape the hail of bullets.

When Boyd tried to reload the pistol, another son tried to grab it. Boyd went to the car, reloaded his gun, came back into the house and called 911, telling the emergency operator, "I've shot my wife and her father - come on and get me." Then more gunshots can be heard on the 911 recording. Law enforcement officers arrived and as they approached, Boyd came out of the nearby woods with his hands up and surrendered to the officers. Later, after being advised of his rights, Boyd gave a lengthy confession

The whole 1.000th thing: Boyd, 57, did not deny the killings. But he said he thought he should be sentenced to life in prison, and he didn't like the milestone his death would mark. "I'd hate to be remembered as that," Boyd told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I don't like the idea of being picked as a number."

The Supreme Court in 1976 ruled that capital punishment could resume after a 10-year moratorium. The first execution took place the following year, when Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad in Utah. Gilmore donated his eyes for transplant, inspiring a British punk rock song.

Almost 1,500 people died at the hands of the inmates executed during the past 28 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Boyd's attorney Thomas Maher, said the "execution of Kenneth Boyd has not made this a better or safer world. If this 1,000th execution is a milestone, it's a milestone we should all be ashamed of. In Boyd's pleas for clemency, his attorneys said he served in Vietnam where he operated a bulldozer and was shot at by snipers daily, which contributed to his crimes.

Last words and such: In the execution chamber, Boyd smiled at daughter-in-law Kathy Smith -- wife of a son from Boyd's first marriage -- and a minister from his home county. He asked Smith to take care of his son and two grandchildren and she mouthed through the thick glass panes separating execution and witness rooms that her husband was waiting outside. In his final words, Boyd said: "God bless everybody in here."

Factoids: Boyd was the...

56th murderer executed in U.S. in 2005
1000th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
5th murderer executed in North Carolina in 2005
39th murderer executed in North Carolina since 1976

One press account...Boyd's death rallied death penalty opponents, and about 150 protesters gathered outside the prison.

or

Another press account:

As the 2 a.m. death hour approached, hundreds of death penalty opponents protested outside the prison.

One held a large white cross. Another held a large yellow peace sign. At the end of the sidewalk stood a hangman's gallows. At 11:27 p.m., about 20 protesters tried to get to the prison to stop the execution. The group dashed past the line of officers standing guard at the top of the prison's driveway. A few got as far as 15 feet down the driveway. As police stopped them, other protesters clapped, cheered and sang "We Shall Overcome." (Ed. Note: Please, please find a new song) Police soon handcuffed the arrestees and loaded them into a bus and a police van.

or...

About 100 death-penalty opponents gathered on a sidewalk outside the prison where they held candles and read the names of the other 999 convicts who have been put to death.

Thirty-eight of the 50 U.S. states and the federal government permit capital punishment.

Singapore, which has the world's highest execution rate relative to population, also carried out a death penalty on Friday. The hanging of Australian drugs trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van went ahead despite repeated Australian government pleas for clemency.

An October 2005 Gallup poll found that 64 percent of all Americans support capital punishment in murder cases.