That’s
how a former district attorney described Mario Swain, who was executed tonight
by the state of Texas for beating, stabbing, and strangling a woman to death during
the course of a robbery in 2002. Before that fatal crime, Swain apparently had
the habit of stalking women, hitting them with wrenches, and shooting them with
stun guns. If he hadn’t been caught after his first murder, police are
convinced that Swain would have killed even more victims in the future.
Since
Texas no longer allows inmates to order special last meals, Swain was served
the same food as other prisoners in his unit. His last meal included tacos, rice,
corn, and mixed beans and greens, with punch, milk, tea, and water to drink.
The Mexican-themed menu turned an ordinary lethal injection into a “Fiesta-cution.”
Muchos gracias to the very helpful
public information team at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
I tried to watch some documentary called The Last Supper: The Life of the Deathrow Chef (2005)
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can tell, it's an interivew of the ex-prisoner who prepared the last meals at Polunsky and with a food-ologist. They claimed last meals are a traditionl stemming from when people put food and other items a dead person would need in the afterlife. Frankly, I don't see the link.
The only interesting thing about the film which was also very gross was the underwear. They had boxer shorts with the names of each murderer executed printed on the waist band and big brown stains in the crotch strung up on clotheslines. It wasn't real, I guess it would fall under the catagory of "art." lol