TX - Patrick Knight executed for '91 murders of Walter & Mary Ann Werner

[deanws]

My thoughts exactly. We waste TONS of food in this country every day and we're making a case about too many pork chops?

I think lots of people want people on death row to suffer to the last until we kill them and they get indignant that Death Rowers have any rights or the "luxury" of a last meal.

That is why they are there...for punishment and to suffer! I would like each and every day they have left on this earth to be a "Hell on earth" situation. JMO I have no compassion for people that kill others. To get the death penalty, the crime has to be planned intentionally with malice. So, I have no PROBLEM at all treating them the same as they treated their victims. :behindbar

 

[Paladin]

No compassion here for a murderer. Let him eat what everyone else ate in prison that day. What makes them so special?

They may be a murderer, but they're still a human being. I just think it's a little hypocritical that we as a society tell people not to kill another human being, and if they do, that we'll kill them.

I think it's barbaric and antiquated, and the entire process costs more to the taxpayers in legal fees than it does to keep them alive as an inmate for life. It also doesn't seem to be serving as a very good deterrant for killing another person.

More and more countries world-wide are starting to outlaw this practice. The US should too.

Of course, I have no experience with having a loved one murdrered, so my opinion is obviously skewed. In trying to see the other perspective, does the killing of the killer really satisfy?

 

[NewMom2003]

Gee, I wonder if his victims were allowed a last meal before he "executed" them. :furious:

 

[Paladin]

Gee, I wonder if his victims were allowed a last meal before he "executed" them. :furious:

This statement really doesn't even make sense.

There's a difference between getting murdered within seconds or minutes, and awaiting your death for years. The United States is not an "eye for an eye" judicial system.

 

[southcitymom]

This statement really doesn't even make sense.

There's a difference between getting murdered within seconds or minutes, and awaiting your death for years. The United States is not an "eye for an eye" judicial system.

Thank God!

 

[Taximom]

They may be a murderer, but they're still a human being.

That's all I was refering to, Paladin. I'm not discussing the death penalty here. I'm discussing an inmate's "last meal". He's a human being just like the other human beings in the prison incarcerated for their crimes. He or she doesn't deserve a special meal, regardless of the cost, on his last day. IMO, of course!

I would like to know the history behind the "last meal". Interesting concept.

 

[southcitymom]

That is why they are there...for punishment and to suffer! I would like each and every day they have left on this earth to be a "Hell on earth" situation. JMO I have no compassion for people that kill others. To get the death penalty, the crime has to be planned intentionally with malice. So, I have no PROBLEM at all treating them the same as they treated their victims. :behindbar

They are NOT there to suffer, though of course many do. Most, however, are longtime criminals who are more comfortable in jail than out of jail, IMHO.

In fact, if they were caused to suffer by something the jails did, the jails would be sued.

 

[southcitymom]

That's all I was refering to, Paladin. I'm not discussing the death penalty here. I'm discussing an inmate's "last meal". He's a human being just like the other human beings in the prison incarcerated for their crimes. He or she doesn't deserve a special meal, regardless of the cost, on his last day. IMO, of course!

I would like to know the history behind the "last meal". Interesting concept.

This Wiki link gives some good history behind the "last meal" trdaition in many cultures:

Although the history of the tradition of giving a prisoner condemned to capital punishment a last meal is difficult to assess, most modern governments which execute prisoners subscribe to it.
The ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans all had a tradition of giving the condemned man a final meal. The Aztecs fed their human sacrifices for up to a year before their death.
In pre-modern Europe, the ritual of granting the malefactor a last meal has its seeds in common superstition: a meal was a highly symbolic social act. Accepting food, which was offered freely, meant to make one's peace with the host - the guest agreed tacitly to take an oath of truce and symbolically abjured all vengeance. Consequentially, in accepting the last meal the condemned was believed to forgive the executioner, the judge, and the witnessing mob. The ritual was supposed to prevent the delinquent from haunting those people, who were responsible for his or her killing, as a ghost or a revenant. The meal was therefore mainly a superstitious precaution and - following that logic - the better the food and the drinks, the safer the condemned's oath of truce. Last meals were often public and all parties which were involved in the penal process took part.
There were some practical side effects of a peaceful last meal as well - it was crucial for the authorities that a public execution was a successful spectacle. In the eyes of the contemporaries the violated law could only be restored by mirroring the crime via retaliative penalties (see lex talionis). However, if the mob had the impression that something was wrong and the chief character of the show was reluctant to play his or her role, things could get out of hand and place the malefactor's guilt in doubt. Hence it was most important for the authorities that the condemned met his or her fate calmly. Apart from having been constantly coerced since the death sentence, the poor sinner's solemn last meal was a significant symbol for the mob that he or she finally accepted the punishment. Additionally, delinquents were often served large quantities of alcoholic beverages to soothe them and bar them from execrating the authorities while ascending the scaffold - which would have been considered a bad omen.

more at link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_meal

 

[Jeana (DP)]

I chuckle that we are on the same side of the street regarding last meals, though different ones regarding the death penalty! Sweet unity at last!

AMEN! LOL

 

[MissieMt]

Seriously, I don't know why this thread even exists.

I guess because he's an inmate on death row we can especially scrutinize the food he supposedly wastes, but we'll gladly turn a blind eye to the waste the rest of this country produces on a daily basis.

I worked at a supermarket in my teens, and every night when I would close up my department I saw people from other departments throwing out perfectly good loaves of bread, deli foods, etc. Instead of donating these food items to a shelter or the food bank, the store's rationale is that if they gave the food away to employees or charity, that the employees in charge of making these food items would intentionally make more on purpose (aka they are stealing and thus hurting the company's bottom line). It didn't make much sense to me at the time, and it still doesn't, considering they end up throwing out food anyway.

You are right, I too waste food, but we try not to. We save our left-overs for tomorrow's lunch, and we buy portions appropriate for our family size. The food I waste-unlike this guy on death row, is not paid for with other people's money.We work very hard for our food, and we still don't get to eat as well as this man did-but I guess that's one of the perks of being a murderer .

 

[Nova]

I assume we give condemned people nice last meals as a way of saying "sorry" to the innocent ones we kill. Seems like the polite thing to do.

You know the old saying: "Better a hundred guilty men eat well, than one innocent man goes hungry."

 

[southcitymom]

-but I guess that's one of the perks of being a murderer .

I think it's just one of the perks about being a person about to be killed by the State. I doubt many of us would switch places with this man just to get a shot at his last meal....

 

[Nova]

I think it's just one of the perks about being a person about to be killed by the State. I doubt many of us would switch places with this man just to get a shot at his last meal....

Indeed.

I think when we so bitterly resent a doomed man's last pork chop, it may be time to turn off the cable news crime shows for awhile.

 

[dufresnecw]

$25 is nothing. I've read that some states allow as much as $40 to keep the meal within reason. (My husband and I both have good jobs and don't eat that on a meal together) If you go to http://www.thememoryhole.org/deaths/texas-final-meals.htm , there are much less reasonable meals than 4 pork chops. One inmate got 2 dozen scrambled eggs among other things.

 

[natasha-cupcake]

Indeed.

I think when we so bitterly resent a doomed man's last pork chop, it may be time to turn off the cable news crime shows for awhile.

Nova, you have such an incredible way with words. This post resonated beautifully and left me with a very understated but long lasting chuckle.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Nova, you have such an incredible way with words. This post resonated beautifully and left me with a very understated but long lasting chuckle.

I had to "chuckle" too.:angel:

 

[JBean]

Indeed.

I think when we so bitterly resent a doomed man's last pork chop, it may be time to turn off the cable news crime shows for awhile.

But Nova, don't you think the message we are sending is :
free pork chops for murderers?
It is just so wrong. What if people start to kill each other for extra chops? it is a precedent I am not sure we should set.

 

[Schmerty_Jones]

But Nova, don't you think the message we are sending is :
free pork chops for murderers?
It is just so wrong. What if people start to kill each other for extra chops? it is a precedent I am not sure we should set.

I'm sorry ,but this is hilarious!!!!!!I don't think I can ever look at a pork chop in quite the same way again:waitasec: :waitasec:

 

[PSUfan]

His last meal costs the taxpayers less than one day in jail. How about we execute them faster, with dna evidence, of course, and then save the taxpayers much more money. Makes sense to me. They could even order in, from a restaurant for all I care.

Can you imagine being able to even eat a bite, on your last meal? I know I couldnt. Can they pass the meal on to the other murderers on death row?

 

[Paladin]

His last meal costs the taxpayers less than one day in jail. How about we execute them faster, with dna evidence, of course, and then save the taxpayers much more money. Makes sense to me. They could even order in, from a restaurant for all I care.

Can you imagine being able to even eat a bite, on your last meal? I know I couldnt. Can they pass the meal on to the other murderers on death row?

Some actually do pass on their last meal, or opt to eat the day's standard fare.