Institutional Diet Log // Case Record

Lawrence Russell Brewer

Analysis of the 2011 Huntsville execution, conviction history, and the administrative abolition of the last meal protocol.

Lawrence Russell Brewer was convicted for the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas. Brewer and two accomplices chained Byrd to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him for several miles, resulting in his death. The crime was widely condemned as one of the most brutal hate crimes in modern American history.

He was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit in Texas on September 21, 2011.

Brewer requested a massive, multi-course final meal. However, he declined to consume any of the items once they were served:

• Two chicken fried steaks with gravy and sliced onions
• A triple-patty bacon cheeseburger
• A cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapeños
• A large bowl of fried okra with ketchup
• One pound of barbecue with half a loaf of white bread
• Three fajitas
• A meat-lover’s pizza
• One pint of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream
• A slab of peanut-butter fudge with crushed peanuts
• Three root beers

Brewer’s refusal to eat the meal he had requested prompted an immediate political reaction. Texas State Senator John Whitmire contacted the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, demanding an end to the “last meal” privilege. The agency complied, abolishing the practice of special last meal requests for death row inmates in Texas effective immediately.