A murderer scheduled to be executed in hours will not receive a ‘last meal’ due to a previous convict’s greedy order.
Steven Nelson, 37, will be executed for the murder of Clint Dobson, 28, a pastor at North Pointe Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, in 2011. He admitted to being a lookout during a robbery at the religious facility and taking items after the murder. However, he continues to deny that he was responsible for the pastor’s death.
Despite his pleas, his request for a lie detector test was denied, and his execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. local time today. However, he will not be served the now-traditional ‘last meal’ due to Lawrence Russell Brewer’s extensive request, which he then refused to eat.
The inmate, who was executed in 2011, ordered two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover’s pizza, a pint of ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts before being executed by injection.
Despite demanding the expensive feast, prison officials claim he did not eat a single bite. The state’s lawmakers then revoked all death row prisoners’ right to request a final meal. Following the incident, Texas Senator John Whitmire wrote to the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, saying, “It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege.”
In one of his final interviews, Nelson, who is scheduled to be executed at the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Texas, stated that he deserved to live. He stated: “People deserve second chances. You see, I’m not a lost cause. I am not beyond help. I’m not broken; I’m not the loss they claim I am.
Nelson has spent the majority of his days in an 8 by 10-foot cell since his 2011 conviction for the same crime. With President Donald Trump, a supporter of the death penalty, returning to office at the age of 78, clemency appears unlikely.
Pastor Dobson was tragically killed during the attack after being beaten and suffocated. The church secretary, Judy Elliott, was severely injured but survived, according to the Mirror. Nelson expresses regret and wishes to apologize to Ms. Elliott, recognizing her ongoing pain as a result of his inability to intervene at the time.
In an interview with News Nation, Nelson insisted on his innocence, saying: “My lawyers at the time told me not to testify because they only did surface stuff during that trial. They didn’t look into my other two co-defendants. They did not conduct any investigations.
He went on to say, “The evidence that my trial lawyers did not present at the time proves that I did not kill anyone. It also demonstrates how the judicial system is designed to ensure that you lose at any cost. That shouldn’t be right.”
Nelson expressed concern about leaving his wife alone, saying it was her decision whether or not to witness his execution. He also stated that he did not want his wife to see him receive the lethal injection. Despite his efforts to contact the church, his letters have reportedly been rejected.
