Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Last Supper

Another state has carried out a death sentence. In the current case, convicted murderer Jeffrey Landrigan was executed by lethal injection in Arizona last night.

As part of their report, CNN provides us with this tasty tidbit.
Landrigan's last meal consisted of steak, fried okra, french fries, strawberry ice cream and a Dr. Pepper, Marson said...
This certainly is not atypical. It seems that each and every time I read an article or watch a news report about a state-sanctioned execution, there is this perverse interest with the condemned person's last meal. Who the hell cares?!

Does it provide some insight into the mind of a convicted killer? Should I now assume that eating too much friend okra or strawberry ice cream might turn you and me into bloodthirsty killers? Did CNN include this information solely as a vehicle to get in a plug for Dr. Pepper?

I guess I simply don't understand people's fascination with last meals. A condemned person's last words may shed some light on the individual's state of mind or degree of remorse (IF they are indeed remorseful), but knowing what he or she ate doesn't add one iota of meaningful information.

Before we know it, reports may include how many trips they made to the latrine and whether or not it was a #1 or a #2!!!

5 comments:

  1. I don't know why the all fast food joints don't get in on this...

    ie: "His last meal was a McDonalds Happy Meal because he wanted to die happy".

    Then they could market it as "the food that real serial killers prefer..."

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  2. LOL Gavin's reply is hilarious.

    i have no idea what the fixation is on last meals. it's just boring trivia to me.

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  3. I agree with Iktomi. You a funny, funny man, Gavin. :-D

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  4. Maybe they tell us to divert attention? Or to make the State seem more sympathetic and just? Like, "hey, yeah, we're gonna kill the bastard, but even so, we'll feed him good one last time. We're still human"

    Personally, I'm not sure there's anything more inhuman than state sponsored murder. That's as cold-blooded as you can get. To sit in some pretentious courtroom and hand out death, even to a legitamately guilty criminal, it disgusting.

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