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Tx. death row inmates lose right to choose last meal

In a Wednesday, April 28, 1999 photo, Lawrence Russell Brewer is led from the Jasper County courthouse in Jasper, Texas. (AP / Pat Sullivan)
In a Wednesday, April 28, 1999 photo, Lawrence Russell Brewer is led from the Jasper County courthouse in Jasper, Texas. (AP / Pat Sullivan)

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Date: Friday Sep. 23, 2011 9:48 AM ET

HOUSTON — Changes are coming to the death row dining menu in Texas.

Inmates are losing their right to choose their last meal before they're executed.

They can blame white supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed Wednesday for dragging a man to death behind his pickup truck.

Before his date with destiny, Brewer ordered two chicken fried steaks, a triple-bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and some peanut butter fudge.

But he didn't eat a bite of it -- and that was too much for Democratic Senator John Whitmire to swallow.

Infuriated, Whitmire contacted the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and soon had a promise that all death row inmates would get the same meals -- regardless of whether it was their last.

Several years ago a former inmate cook who made last meals at the Huntsville Unit in Texas wrote a cookbook called "Meals to Die For."

The recipes included Gallows Gravy, Rice Rigor Mortis and Old Sparky's Genuine Convict Chili -- a nod to the electric chair of days gone by.

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