While many death row inmates are given the choice of what they would like to eat as their final meal, prisoners in Texas no longer have this privilege.

As of 2022, 55 countries across the globe still had the death penalty. And as per statistics at the time, it was predicted that over 28,000 people were on death row, said BBC News.

America is one country to still have the death penalty, but it’s only enforceable in 27 of its 50 states — one of which being Texas.

One person in the state to have died by lethal injection recently is Moises S. Mendoza, who was convicted of killing 20-year-old mother Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson in 2004.

Mendoza had been on death row for five years before his execution on April 23. In his final statement, he apologized to his victim’s family.

Mendoza died by lethal injection on April 23 (Texas Department of Corrections)

“I am sorry for having robbed you of Rachelle’s life,” he said.

Mendoza also issued an apology to Tolleson’s daughter Avery, whom he said he ‘robbed of a mother’.

He continued: “I know nothing that I could ever say or do would ever make up for that. I want you to know I am sincere. I apologize.”

Ahead of his execution, Mendoza will not have been able to choose his final meal as death row inmates in Texas have been prohibited from doing so since 2011.

This all came down to Lawrence Russell Brewer’s actions before his own execution that year.

Lawrence Russell Brewer was the last Texas death row inmate to pick their final meal (Buck Kelly/Getty Images)

Brewer was a white supremacist who was jailed along with three other men for murdering James Byrd Jr. in 1998.

As was tradition at the time, prison guards asked Brewer what he’d like to eat for his last meal – and he didn’t waste the opportunity.

According to a report from Jacksonville.com, Brewer asked for practically enough food to make a buffet, including two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas and a meat lover’s pizza.

He didn’t stop there, as the inmate also asked for some sweet treats to round off the meal, including a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.

One of the items he requested was fried okra (Getty Stock Image)

The prison delivered on his request, but Brewer decided to not eat a single bite, instead claiming he wasn’t hungry.

Brewer’s refusal sparked frustration from Texas senator John Whitmire, who wrote a letter to the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to say: “It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege.”

The director agreed the senator’s concerns were valid, and thus ended the 87-year tradition of allowing death row inmates in Texas to choose their last meal ‘effective immediately’.

If you and I were on death row, we’d probably request something normal for our final meal – like a medium-rare steak with lightly salted fries and a bottle of wine to wash it down.

But I suppose we aren’t deranged killers so naturally, we’d order a party on a plate to get our taste buds dancing one last time.

But not Victor Harry Feguer.

In 1963, Feguer was sentenced to death through hanging at the age of just 28, and after serving years on death row, he finally reached the front of the queue, meaning it was time to order his final meal.

Victor Harry Feguer was executed in 1963 after murdering a local doctor (Iowa Police)

‘One single olive please’, is how I imagine it went down.

There’s a chilling reason why he ordered one sad olive with a pip, but before we get into that, let’s talk about what wicked crimes he committed to find himself behind bars awaiting certain death.

Back in July 1960, Feguer was flicking through the old Yellow Pages book and was calling local physicians in Iowa in alphabetical order, before finally dialling Dr Edward Bartels number – and tragically, he picked up.

The then 25-year-old began feeding Dr Bartels lies, saying there was a woman who needed urgent medical care. When Dr Bartels arrived, he discovered that there was no woman in aid of his help.

Instead, the Michigan-born killer kidnapped the 34-year-old doctor and proceeded to kill him in Illinois.

Feguer was convicted of murder and sentenced to death (Getty Stock Image)

The medic’s body was later found in a cornfield with a gunshot wound to the head.

Despite Feguer protesting his innocence and insisting someone else had been responsible for the murder, he was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death.

Feguer even lodged an appeal, but it was denied, meaning only the President of the United States had the power to do anything about his fate.

But even after being contacted by Iowa’s governor Harold Hughes and Feguer’s attorney, President at the time John F. Kennedy didn’t budge – and is said to have turned down their pleas because he ‘thought the crime was so brutal’.

Alas, on 15 March, 1963, Feguer was sent to the gallows to be hung to death for his crime.

So, when it came to selecting his final meal, why was it just a singular olive?

The killer ordered a single olive for his final meal on death row (Getty Stock Image)

Apparently, he intended to use it to create life after death.

Feguer told guards that he hoped that after he was executed, he would be buried with the pip and an olive tree would sprout from the ground, with the tree being a symbol of peace.

However, after he was executed, some reports state that guards discovered the pip in the pocket of the suit he wore for his execution. But of course, an olive tree never grew.

A mass murderer trembled on the gurney ‘for about two minutes’ before his execution.

Death row inmate Alan Miller was controversially killed in the State of Alabama yesterday evening (September 26), and in the process became only the second person to die the way he did.

Before we get into the execution method, which defense lawyers claim it violates a prisoner’s rights as well as the UN warning it could even be deemed as torture, we’ll dive into why he was strapped to the chair in the first place.

Back in 1999, the then 34-year-old unleashed hell on three people, with the a testimony that was read out during his trial claimed the motive behind his wicked crimes were that his colleagues and former supervisor were spreading rumors about him being gay.

In response, Miller visited his place of work, Ferguson Enterprises in Pelham, Alabama, a heating and air-conditioning company that distributed the white goods.

Armed with a gun he shot co-workers 32-year-old Lee Holdbrooks, a total of six times, and 28-year-old Christopher Yancy – three times.

Alan Miller’s last meal was a hamburger steak, a baked potato, and French fries (Police)

The crazed killer then hopped in his car and drove a total of five miles to a place where he used to work, and shot his old supervisor 39-year-old Terry Jarvis, a total of five times.

He was handed the death penalty the following July, and after serving 22 years on death row he was due to be executed by way of lethal injection – but a problem arose on September 22, 2022.

While strapped to the gurney prison staff were unable to find a vein to deliver the injection into and with the death warrant running out at midnight, it was delayed.

Two months later, it was ruled he would be executed by way of nitrogen hypoxia – a controversial method.

Until earlier this year, when Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed in the same state, it had never been used on a human and was only authorised in Mississippi, Oklahoma and Alabama.

The method consists of a person breathing in nitrogen through a respirator over his nose and mouth, meaning he couldn’t breathe in any oxygen.

Miller was executed by way of hydrogen hypoxia (Alabama Department of Corrections)

Despite it being heavily contested and lawyers, arguing it violated the prisoner’s rights as well as the UN warning it could subject prisoners to ‘cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or even torture’.

Yesterday (September 26), Ivana Hrynkiw Shatara, a local journalist for Alabama Media Group, was in the gallery for Miller’s execution.

She took to Twitter noting that ‘Miller shook for about two minutes on the gurney, followed by about six minutes of gasping for air’, adding that struggles to catch his breath were ‘off and on’.

Shatara tweeted: “‘I didn’t do anything to be in here,’ he said for his last words. He asked his family and friends witnessing the execution to take care of someone, which was inaudible.

“‘I didn’t do anything to be on death row,’ he said again.”

Miller, whose last meal was hamburger steak, a baked potato, and French fries, was pronounced dead at 6.38pm local time.

53-year-old convicted killer Aaron Brian Gunches was executed via lethal injection earlier this week, and his final meal has been revealed.

Gunches was convicted for the first-degree murder of his girlfriend’s ex-husband, Ted Price, in 2002.

He pleaded guilty to the charges he faced in 2007 and was subsequently put on death row.

He was put to death on March 19, 2025, and medics pronounced him dead at 10:33 am local time. Before receiving the injection, he was asked if he had any final words, but the prisoner made it clear that he had nothing more to say.

The 53-year-old previously submitted a handwritten motion to the state of Arizona to ‘have his long overdue sentence car­ried out’.

For his final meal, Gunches had a double western bacon cheeseburger, two sandwiches, french fries, onion rings, and baklava for dessert.

Deputy director of Arizona’s Department of Corrections John Barcello spoke to news outlets after Gunches’ death and said ‘by all accounts, the process went according to plan without incident’.

Reporter Troy Hayden, of 12 News KPNX, was also present, and said there was no wincing or anything of that nature when Gunches was put to death.

However, Dale Baich, a former federal public defender who teaches death penalty law at Arizona State University, has argued that while it may have looked peaceful, the process would not have been.

Once he’d been injected with the substance that would end his life, Gunches took a few heavy breaths, then let out a snoring sound.

Baich explained that this snoring noise could have been as a result of pulmonary edema, which is when fluid seeps into the lungs and effectively causes drowning.

Gunches plead guilty to the murder in 2007 and has been on death row since 2008 (Arizona Department of Corrections)

Witnesses who were at Gunches execution have also spoken out and said what they saw.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said the death of Gunches brought ‘closure’ for Price’s family.

Price’s sister Karen Price also explained that she still feels the pain of losing her brother.

She said: “I’d like to imagine we would be both enjoying our retirement and perhaps planning a trip together, rather than me coming here to witness the execution of a man that took his life.

“Although we’ve taken the final step in the legal process, the pain of losing Ted remains profound and cannot be conveyed in mere words. It is a relief that we no longer have to deal with lawyers, sift through documents, check prison records, or communicate with victims’ advocates or reporters.”