Condemned murderer Steven Spears has asked for only one thing for his final meal, should he be executed next week as scheduled — a large meat pizza.
Murderers going to their deaths typically make extensive, sometimes elaborate, requests for the dinners they are served just before they are to be put to death. A few, however, want nothing special, just what other prisoners are having that evening.
Cornell University researchers found that last meal requests and whether the condemned person eats or not reveals whether they believe they are innocent or whether they have accepted that they are going to be executed.
Cornell University researchers Kevin Kniffin and Brian Wansink reviewed last-meal requests from 247 people just before they were to be put to death between 2002 and 2006. They found that those who asked for something specific usually wanted what was comfort food to them — what they associated with their lives before prison. They also learned that the condemned person who insisted he she was innocent were almost three times more likely to refuse to eat than prisoners who had accepted their guilt.
Kniffin and Wansink found that prisoners “at peace” with their impending deaths also asked for more caloric meals.
For example, Kelly Gissendaner.
She had become deeply religious while in prison and those who knew her said she had accepted her fate.
Gissendaner had two “last meals” because the first execution was called off at the last minute when a problem developed with the drug.
The first time she was to have been executed she asked for cornbread, buttermilk, two Whoppers with cheese and all the trimmings, two large orders of fries, cherry vanilla ice cream, popcorn, lemonade and a salad with boiled eggs, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, carrots, cheese and Paul Newman buttermilk dressing.
The second time she was scheduled for execution, which was carried out on Sept. 30, 2015, Gissendaner had cheese dip with chips, Texas nachos with fajita meat and a diet frosted lemonade.
Another example of an elaborate spread: John Wayne Conner, executed in July, asked for 10 pieces of fried catfish, 10 hush puppies, two triple deluxe hamburgers with bacon, two pints of vanilla ice cream and a sliced raw onion.
Last November, Marcus Ray Johnson's last meal request was for a six-pack of beer. Otherwise, he said, he would eat what other inmates at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison were having that evening. He didn't get the beer.
Unless the items on an inmate’s last meal list can only be found at a specific place — like the Whoppers Gissendaner wanted — the food is prepared at the prison, according to spokeswoman Joan Heath.
In 1996, Ellis Wayne Felker requested fish. Correctional officer Rusty Brooks was dispatched with a fishing pole to the lake on the property of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson. He caught Felker’s last meal.
Otherwise, there are options in Jackson or nearby Griffin and McDonough or along Interstate 75, which just over a mile from the prison where Death Row is located.
Spears was concise. He just wanted a pizza.
Heath said Friday Spears’ pizza will come from a nearby restaurant. A correctional officer will pick it up.
Spears, 54, is scheduled to be put to death at 7 p.m. Wednesday for suffocating his ex-girlfriend, Sherri Holland, in the early morning hours of Aug. 25, 2001, at her Dahlonega home. He choked her unconscious and then wrapped her face and head with duct tape and then covered her head with a plastic bag that he secured with the tape.
Spears readily admitted he killed her. He has not filed any appeals beyond the automatic challenge that was brought on his behalf after he was sentenced to die.
If he is put to death, Spears will be the eighth person in Georgia to die by lethal injection this year, more than any other state and more than any time in Georgia since capital punishment was reinstated nationwide 40 years ago.
Last meals requested for 2016 executions
Feb. 3 — Brandon Jones — Had what other inmates ate that evening. Chicken and rice, rutabagas, seasoned turnip greens, dry white beans, cornbread, bread pudding and fruit punch.
Feb. 17 — Travis Hittson — Had what other inmates ate that evening. Meatloaf, gravy, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots, red beans, cornbread, bread pudding and orange beverage
March 31 — Joshua Bishop — Barbeque sandwich, Brunswick stew, potato chips, coleslaw, lemonade and purple candy.
April 12 — Keneth Fults — T-bone steak, baked potato with butter, brown rice and apple juice.
April 27 — Daniel Anthony Lucas — Meat pizza, steak and cheese calzone, a stuffed portobello mushroom, chef salad with ranch and honey mustard dressings and orange juice.
July 15 — John Wayne Conner — 10 pieces of fried catfish, 10 hush puppies, two triple deluxe hamburgers with bacon, two pints of vanilla ice cream and a sliced raw onion.
Oct. 19 — Gregory Lawler — Rib eye steak, a baked potato with sour cream, asparagus, dinner rolls with butter, French onion soup, strawberries, pistachio ice cream and apple juice.
