 |
| Last Meal: Ruben Cantu, oil on canvas, Kate MacDonald. More here |
(AP) ALBANY, N.Y. — On death row, last meals tend to be high in calories and heavy on meat.
French fries, soda, ice cream, hamburgers, chicken, steak and pie are commonly requested items among inmates imminently facing execution, according to Cornell University researchers who studied 193 last meal requests in the United States.
The final meals of condemned prisoners are an enduring, if morbid, source of fascination — whether those convicted of the most heinous crimes opted for a final lobster dinner or canned spaghetti. Requests vary greatly, but the Cornell researchers found some general trends in a quirky bit of research analyzing last meal orders.
No surprise: Many last meal requests are tasty but unhealthy. More than two-thirds of the condemned ordered fried foods, mostly french fries, and they ordered dessert at about the same rate. Inmates were five times more likely to request soda than milk.
The average meal request came in at an estimated 2,756 calories, more
than a typical grown man needs in a whole day. Researchers estimated
that four of the meal requests tallied more than 7,200 calories,
including a request for 12 pieces of fried chicken, two buttered rolls,
mashed potatoes with brown gravy, two sodas and a pint each of
strawberry and vanilla ice cream.
Comfort foods were popular among the condemned.
Source: CBSNews, August 29, 2012
Related articles:
Apr 28, 2012
Originally conceived to participate in the Texas Moratorium Network's exhibit Justice For All? Artists Reflect on the Death Penalty, the first painting of the series, Last Meal: Ruben Cantu, has been shown at galleries in Austin .
Mar 26, 2012
Green was teaching art at the University of Oklahoma in 1999, when she read an article in her local paper about an Oklahoma inmate's execution and became intrigued about the details of a last meal that were included.
Jul 22, 2011
Originally conceived to participate in the Texas Moratorium Network's exhibit Justice For All? Artists Reflect on the Death Penalty, the first painting of the series, Last Meal: Ruben Cantu, has been shown at galleries in Austin ...
Sep 28, 2011
Last week, the head of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced that death row inmates in the Lone Star State will no longer be granted opulent last meal requests after a convicted murderer didn't touch a large ...