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“I will never fully understand the hypocrisy of fulfilling someone’s last wishes only to take their life the very next day. … It’s a confusing gesture. It almost feels like the last meal does more for the executioner than it does for the inmate: a clearing of the conscience.”
Intrigued by “the severity of capital punishment and the strangely forgiving nature of last meals,” photographer Julia Ziegler-Haynes set out to capture the last meals of 24 executed prisoners in a new book, Today’s Special. Based on public records, she recreated and photographed each meal from the vantage point of the inmate.
Above is the moving image of a black, unpitted olive Robert Anthony Buell, who was executed for the murder of an 11-year-old girl in September 2002, requested. (View a slideshow of more photos here.)
It’s worth noting that last September, Texas ended the practice, citing excesses after a death row inmate left the enormous meal he’d requested uneaten. The most popular requests have been hamburgers, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
And from last meals to last words, via @GretchenMarg: the most common word in the final statements of 478 Texas death row inmates was “love,” according to analysis by John Millward. The others were:
