Full death row meal inmate ordered forced laws to be changed

One death row prisoner managed to spoil the tradition of the infamous final meal privilege in Texas.

Inmates no longer leave this world with a full belly of their favourite food all because of Lawrence Russell Brewer.

Each US state has its own specific rules surrounding the customary ritual, but convicts can pretty much choose whatever they want their last meal will be - within reason.

But the 87-year-old tradition was axed in Texas in September 2011, putting a stop to all special meal requests.

Now, instead of a taste of the outside world, those waiting to be put to death just get whatever is on the prison's menu for the day.

They have Brewer to thank for that - as he managed to rile officials up so much with his last meal that he ruined it for every death row prisoner in the state for the rest of time.

The 44-year-old was a white supremacist murderer who was jailed alongside three other men for horrifically killing James Byrd Jr. by dragging him along behind a pick-up truck for three miles along a road.

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Brewer and accomplice John King were the first white men to receive the death penalty for killing a black man in modern Texas, and their atrocities prompted the state to introduce new laws surrounding hate crimes.

Another accomplice, Shawn Berry, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime.

Before Brewer's execution on 21 September, 2011, he was asked what he would like to eat as his last meal.

And he obviously wasn't watching his waist line, so he really took advantage of the ritual.

According to a report from the time published in the Houston Chronicle, Brewer asked for a bowl of fried okra with ketchup, two chicken steaks with gravy and onions, and a cheese omelette with ground beef, jalapenos and bell peppers.

But he didn't stop there.

On top of that, he wanted: "A triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, three fajitas, one pound of barbecue and a half loaf of white bread, pizza meat lover's special, one pint of 'homemade vanilla' Blue Bell ice cream, one slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts and three root beers."

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But when the meal - or an approximation of it - was placed in front of him, the killer refused to eat any of it.

Brewer said he was not hungry and the death row feast was chucked in the bin.

Texas senator John Whitmire didn't take the huge waste lightly.

He asked state prison officials to end the nearly 90-year-old tradition of offering a last meal choice to condemned inmates.

As for Brewer, he proved himself a horrible man to the last.

On the day before his execution, even after James Byrd's family had asked for his life to be spared, he told KHOU 11 News: "As far as any regrets, no, I have no regrets.

"No, I'd do it all over again, to tell you the truth."