Death row menus left bad taste
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HOUSTON, Texas (Reuters) -- The final meals of executed prisoners are off the menu on the Texas prison system's Internet site.
Texas, which far and away leads all U.S. states in executions since a national death penalty ban was lifted in 1976, has long listed details of the meals on the prison system's Web site, www.tdcj.state.tx.us.
But Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said they were removed last week during a redesign of the site.
"We had some complaints from people in both the U.S. and abroad that it might be in poor taste to distribute that information on the Web site," she said.
The information about last meals will still be made available to reporters covering executions.
The meals, which in Texas have to be made with what is available in the prison, range from the simple to the extravagant.
Briton John "Jackie" Elliott requested a cup of tea and chocolate chip cookies before his February 4 execution.
Also in February, Richard Head Williams asked for two chili cheese dogs, two cheeseburgers, two orders of onion rings with French dressing, a turkey salad with fries, egg rolls, chocolate cake, apple pie, butter pecan ice cream, one peach, three Dr. Pepper sodas, jalapenos, Ketchup and mayonnaise.
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