Final meals of three Death Row inmates executed on same day
The final meals of three Death Row residents executed across the United States this month have been revealed to include Philly Cheesesteaks, ice cream, doughnuts, and fried chicken.
History was made on 13 August when Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines and Jeremy Williams were all killed via lethal injection.
It is the first time in 15 years that three judicial killings were scheduled in the US on a single day.
The trio died in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama, with their final meals being announced by officials.
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Here’s everything that the men requested and ate before their executions.
Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez’s final meal
On 13 August, Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was executed via lethal injection for the 2003 murder of his girlfriend, Olimpia Fisher.
The 70-year-old was pronounced dead at 10.13am, as per reports.
His execution followed after he unsuccessfully appealed for mercy due to mental illness, the publication reported.
His family claimed in a statement that he was a ‘different man from the one who committed his horrible crime – remorseful every single day, burdened by the weight of what he had done – but defined by decades of living humbly, gently, and with unwavering love and devotion to his family and to inmates far worse off than himself’.
“His legacy will not be measured by his worst moment, but by the countless moments after – the letters that never failed to arrive, the art he created from behind those walls, and the love and light he poured out consistently and unconditionally, proving that even from a place of such darkness, one person’s kindness and redemption can still ripple into the world.”
In conversation with UNILAD, chief of communications at the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Kay Thompson revealed that the man’s last meal was a Cuban sandwich, rocky road ice cream, doughnuts, and a bottle of water.
Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines last dinner
The day Cuesta-Rodriguez was executed, Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines was also killed by lethal injection.
He spent 40 years on death row for the 1985 murder of Catherine Jean Jackson Jenkins.
The 66-year-old, who maintained his innocence across four decades, was found guilty of stabbing the woman, 54, whilst robbing a motel.
His death row meal, confirmed by the Tennessee Department of Corrections, comprised of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, corn, fries, biscuits and a chicken sandwich.
It was apparently finished with a chocolate chip cake and a sweet tea.
What Jeremy Williams requested
Alabama has executed 42-year-old Jeremy Williams by lethal injection for the 2021 rape and murder of Georgian 5-year-old, Kamarie Holland.
"I want to thank God for forgiving me for my sins so I can meet him in peace," Williams said while on the gurney, as reported by the Associated Press.
Following the execution, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey released a statement addressing the severity of the crime.
"The unspeakable nature of this crime is exactly why we have the death penalty statute," she stated.
“Kamarie Holland is an innocent girl who is no longer with us, but she finally received justice tonight. May God bless little Kamarie Holland.”
ABC News reported that the day before his execution, Williams had assorted vending machine snacks and sodas in addition to his regular breakfast, lunch and dinner trays.
On the day of his death (13 August), he refused his breakfast tray, accepted his lunch tray, and refused his dinner tray.
He had a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich, assorted snacks throughout the day, and requested a cheese pizza for his final meal.
Infamous death row meals
Victor Feguer
Feguer kidnapped and killed Dr Edward Bartels in July 1960. The doctor's body was later found in an Illinois cornfield with a single gunshot to the head.
Feguer was convicted of federal kidnapping and murder and executed by hanging at the Iowa State Penitentiary on 15 March, 1963.
For his final meal, the 27-year-old murderer requested a single olive with a pit in it. Feguer apparently told guards that he hoped an olive tree would grow from his grave, 'as a sign of peace'.
John Wayne Gacy
One of America’s most notorious serial killers, Gacy was convicted in 1980 after murdering at least 33 boys and young men in the 1970s.
The 52-year-old was executed by lethal injection at the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois on 10 May, 1994.
Gacy opted for a bucket of KFC's original recipe chicken, French fries, 12 deep-fried shrimp, and a pound of strawberries for his last supper. In an eerie full-circle moment, it’s said that he previously managed several KFC restaurants owned by his father-in-law.
James Edward Smith
Smith was found guilty of fatally shooting Larry Don Rohus while he was robbing an office building in Houston, Texas, in 1983.
He was put to death by lethal injection at Texas’ Huntsville Unit on 26 June, 1990.
The inmate asked for a lump of rhaeakunda dirt for his final meal, as part of a voodoo ritual, which he both practised and believed in, as he hoped that it would assist his journey into reincarnation.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, his bizarre request was denied, and the 37-year-old was given plain yoghurt instead.
Timothy McVeigh
McVeigh was convicted of conspiracy, using a weapon of mass destruction, and destruction by explosives resulting in death for carrying out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people.
On 11 June, 2001, he was executed for his crimes via lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Indiana.
McVeigh, 33, chowed down on two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream for his final meal.
Ella Scott