Final meal fascination
Wednesday morning, Ohio executed convicted murderer Gary Otte.
On Tuesday night, Otte was served his final meal. It included a slice of tomato and onion, three sliced jalapeno poppers, a mushroom-swiss burger, a double cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato, four packets of Miracle Whip salad dressing, a 2-liter bottle of orange Faygo, a quart of Heath Bar ice cream, two servings of mozzarella sticks, a piece of banana cream pie, a glazed donut and a cream-filled donut.
Prison officials said Otte did not eat all of the food.
It is a very odd thing, but I always read the condemned person’s last meal. I don’t know why I am so fascinated by it. Every execution story details the final meal, so clearly I am not alone.
In our newsroom we discussed the matter and it seems as though the idea of a final meal humanizes the condemned. That said, I do not want to humanize them. As a member of the state, I realize this man is being put to death in my name and to an extent, I am sanctioning the ending of his life.
I am not opposed to execution. I understand the role it plays in our judicial system as both punishment and deterrent. That said, it is not something I enjoy or am glad we do. I don’t want to linger on it.
Photographer Henry Hargreaves re-created the last meals of some death row prisoners and photographed them. In an interview with a British journalist, Hargreaves said he wasn’t trying to make a political statement one way or the other, about the crime or the punishment, but did want the viewers to see the inmate as a human, even if just for a final moment.
“As I read the requests, I began to imagine these prisoners as people and not just numbers,” Hargreaves said in the interview. “The story became much more real in my mind and I wanted to represent this visually.”
He said the final meal requests are “a fascinating insight into the minds of these soon-to-be executed individuals.”
“Our culinary choices often say something about us that we sometimes cannot articulate easily. One of the trends with last meals was the amount of fried or comfort food.”
The logical next question in the thought progress is to wonder what we would want for a final meal. I considered cataloging what I would want for a last meal, but the idea eventually became too creepy for me.
Texas has no longer gives a last meal, which seems like a final insult. Given that the condemned man refused to value the life of his victim, perhaps it is appropriate.
Maybe my editor Chad Williamson is correct. Maybe the idea of a someone like this eating his favorite foods one final time, knowing this will be the last thing that ever crosses his taste buds, gives the condemned man an almost childlike quality.
Hargreaves said the last meal is something we can all relate to because we all eat and we all will die. Maybe he is right. Maybe while most of us want to know the day and time of our death, we all have things we would like to do a final time. Murderers do not expect to get caught so the condemned man likely didn’t know the last time he walked in a park or sat by a campfire, the last time he had a grilled hotdog or drove a car. Perhaps this final meal, of his choice is more than just a meal. For years he has been told what to do and when to do it, every step monitored and orchestrated. And moments after the meal is consumed, the man will be led, against his natural will, strapped in place and executed.
Perhaps the meal is one final choice, a small taste of freedom.
-Mac Cordell is a reporter for the Journal-Tribune.