Trevor Dailey's Weblog

A few of the reasons why I do not support capital punishment are:

It does not deter murder (A weak argument. Which judicial punishment deters any crime?)

Innocent people, the wrongly convicted, will be executed. The justice system is not infallible, and it never will be. I will not have an innocent person executed in order to have a guilty person executed.

I have an issue with government sanctioned killing of citizens.

Canada abolished capital punishment (Canada's method of execution was hanging) on July 14, 1976, but there have since been attempts to reinstate it.

I am going to briefly comment on a "documentary" I watched online called "The Last Supper: The Life of the Death Row Chef" (2005) This is my opinion of the film.

The film contains many interesting, but trivial, bits of information on the last meal of the convicted and condemned to death throughout history. Scattered throughout the film are short, seemingly random, interviews with different people from several countries involved in judicial executions: a warden, an executioner, a judge, one person once condemned to death, but not executed.

Brian Price, the former "death row chef" is the feature of the film. Born in San Antonio, Texas, Price was sentenced to 15 years in a Penitentiary at Huntsville, Texas for a crime (rape of his ex wife) he says he didn't actually commit. A former "professional photographer" and "professional bass player" for "different hard rock bands" from "1975 to 1988" the middled aged, greying, ponytailed Price is back in Huntsville, still a chef from his prison days, to prepare the same last meal he prepared for an executed Texas murderer.

The film is obvious in its attempt to gain sympathy for the condemned to death, and the film is far more art than documentary containing many "artistic" visuals. One is food falling in slow motion onto a table with a white table cloth as the screen titles list the amount of food from a feast some centuries ago before an execution. After thinking how it shows I am not watching an objective documentary, but rather a modern art film, my mind drifted to thoughts of all the food they were wasting (I am not a wealthy man), especially the many pounds of meat, in this pointless visual effect. However; it was their food to do with what they wished. 

During the cuts of Price in the film, as he prepares the meal at the Harvest Church kitchen, he speaks his commentary against the death penalty in Texas, and how he became the so-called death row chef. Price tells his story of volunteering to prepare a last meal while incarcerated working as a cook. Price's face is emotional as he recalls his first last meal for man who was executed, and that the man gave a message for Price before he died that he "really liked his meal, and he appreciated it". This made Price decide to volunteer to be the last meal chef for 11 years preparing hundreds of last meals.

Price appears likeable, friendly, articulate, and a smart person who doesn't seem like he spent a day in jail. His stories, true or not, like the story of Patrick Rogers' execution, are clearly intended to provoke sympathy for the condemned to death, to create a loathing for capital punishment in general, and capital punishment in Texas specifically.

During the film, Price speaks the name of the executed person whose last meal Price is recreating: James Beathard. At the end of the film, Price is shown going to the prison cemetery where Price locates the grave of Lawrence Buxton, the person he made his first last meal for, the one whose comments on his last meal moved Price so much that Price became the death row chef.

I found this film only annoyed me because of its lack of objectivity before I looked up the names of the executed mentioned in the film. Now the film disgusts me. The film wants the viewer to feel sympathy for Beathard, Buxton, and Rogers, three condemned and executed murders who were cold-blooded killers.

I am still not supporting capital punishment, but I find this anti-death penalty film to be self-righteous and repugnant.

© Trevor Dailey

Have you ever thought about where your food comes from? Like many people, you may have. Some use this thought to go off on tangents of "all natural" and "organic", or "environmental" and "sustainability". I am not one who does that. 

Retail fabrication of meat is not a topic I went out seeking,  I came upon the subject quite by chance while I was searching for information about retail cuts of meat; however, it is a subject that I found interesting. Retail fabrication of meat is a process that is used by butchers and the meat processing industry to turn a slaughtered animal carcass into retail cuts of meat one buys at the store.

Finding myself at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment  YouTube site, watched two videos that are instructional aids in teaching students retail meat fabrication. Both videos demonstrate, step by step, how pork and beef carcasses can be processed for retail sale.

I found the videos informative and interesting. Like many consumers,  I buy my meat at the grocery store. These videos give me more knowledge regarding what I am buying, and more knowledge of where my food comes from.

© Trevor Dailey