Last meals of 2016's death row inmates

In his "A Year of Killing" series, photographer Henry Hargreaves recreates haunting images of death row inmates' last meal requests. He believes food preferences speak volumes about a person's character and personality in any setting. Death row choices are an extremely powerful example of that theory.

This photograph depicts the last meal of Pablo Vasquez, who was convicted of the murder of a 12-year-old boy and executed in Texas on April 6, 2016. Vasquez spent 17 years on death row and was 38 when he died via lethal injection. For his last meal, Vasquez requested Salisbury steak, steamed rice, brown gravy, a vegetable blend, sweet peas, ranch style beans, sliced bread and butterscotch brownies. He was given a choice of water, tea or punch to drink.

Kenneth Fults

Kenneth Fults, who was executed in Georgia on April 12, 2016, spent 18 years on death row. He was sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of his neighbor and was 47 years old when he was executed by lethal injection. For his last meal, Fults had a T-bone steak, a baked potato with butter, brown rice and apple juice.

Hargreaves hopes his work will make people think critically about the death penalty. “As state sponsored executions become increasingly problematic due to lack of access to effective drugs, clear racial and social basis and the human error of assigning blame. The killings still go on at a rapid rate,” Hargreaves writes of his inspiration for the series. “I hope this helps better inform people about this practice.”

Christopher Brooks

Christopher Brooks, who was executed in Alabama on January 21, 2016, was sentenced to death for the 1992 rape and beating death of a 23-year-old woman. Brooks spent 22 years on death row. He was 43 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Brooks had two peanut butter cups and a Dr. Pepper.

William Cary Sallie

William Cary Sallie, who was executed in Georgia on December 6, 2016, spent 26 years on death row. He was sentenced to death in 1991 for a violent rampage against his ex-wife and her family, in which he killed her father, wounded her mother, then kidnapped his ex-wife and her sister, raping both women repeatedly.

Sallie was 50 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Sallie had a medium pizza with sausage and pepperoni, chicken wings with buffalo sauce and a large soda.

Oscar Ray Bolin Jr.

Oscar Ray Bolin Jr., who was executed in Florida on January 7, 2016, spent 23 years on death row. The serial killer, who was convicted of murdering three young women back in 1986, was 53 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Bolin had a medium-rare rib eye steak, a baked potato with butter and sour cream, a salad made with iceberg lettuce, cucumber and tomato, baked garlic bread, lemon meringue pie, and a bottle of Coca-Cola.

Coy Wesbrook

Coy Wesbrook, who was executed in Texas on March 9, 2016, spent 17 years on death row. He was sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of his ex-wife and four others, a shooting rampage he testified he carried out after walking in on his ex-wife in bed with multiple men at a party. 

Wesbrook was 58 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Wesbrook ate baked chicken, mashed potatoes, country gravy, green beans, black-eyed peas, sliced bread and mandarin orange cake. He was given a choice of water, tea or punch to drink.

Steven Frederick Spears

Unlike “No Seconds,” Hargreaves’ photo series depicting the last meals of some of the most notorious death row inmates of the last 40 years (e.g. John Wayne Gacy and Timothy McVeigh), “A Year of Killing” looks solely at the last meals of death row inmates executed in the year 2016.

Steven Frederick Spears, who was executed in Georgia on November 16, 2016, spent 15 years on death row. He was convicted in the August 2001 slaying of his ex-girlfriend, after suspecting that she had become romantically involved with someone else, according to a Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case. Spears was 54 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Spears ate a large meat pizza.

Richard Masterson

Richard Masterson, who was executed in Texas on January 20, 2016, spent 13 years on death row. He was sentenced to death for killing Darin Honeycutt, a drag performer he met at a bar. The jury did not buy Masterson’s claim that Honeycutt’s death was the accidental result of consensual erotic asphyxiation. 

Masterson was 43 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Masterson ate baked chicken, mashed potatoes with country gravy, carrots, black-eyed peas and sliced bread. He was given a choice of water, tea or punch to drink.

Earl Forrest

Earl Forrest, who was executed in Missouri on May 11, 2016, spent 11 years on death row. He was sentenced to death for killing two people in a drug dispute and a sheriff’s deputy in a subsequent shootout. Forrest was 66 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Forrest had steak, pasta, a fruit plate, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, chocolate cake and milk.

Joshua Bishop

Joshua Bishop, who was sentenced to death for a 1994 murder and executed in Georgia on March 31, 2016, spent 20 years on death row. He was 41 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Bishop had a barbecue sandwich, Brunswick stew, potato chips, coleslaw, lemonade and purple candy.

Brandon Jones

Brandon Jones, who was executed in Georgia on February 3, 2016, spent 36 years on death row. He was sentenced to death for the murder of a convenience store manager during a robbery. He was 72 years old and Georgia’s oldest death row inmate when he was executed by lethal injection. Jones refused the option of choosing his final meal, so he was given the standard issue menu of chicken and rice, rutabagas, seasoned turnip greens, dry white beans, cornbread, bread pudding and fruit punch.

Travis Hittson

Travis Hittson, who was executed in Georgia on February 17, 2016, spent 22 years on death row. He was sentenced to death for the murder and dismemberment of a fellow Navy crewman. He was 45 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. The murderer refused to choose a final meal and instead ate a standard prison dinner of meatloaf, brown gravy, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots, red beans, cornbread and bread pudding, washed down with an orange beverage.

Daniel Anthony Lucas

Daniel Lucas, who was executed in Georgia on April 27, 2016, spent 16 years on death row. He was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of a man and his two children during a home burglary, and was 37 years old when he was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Lucas ate a meat pizza, a steak and cheese calzone, a stuffed Portobello mushroom and a chef salad with both ranch dressing and honey mustard dressing. He drank an orange juice.

Ronald Bert Smith, Jr.

Ronald Bert Smith, Jr., who was executed in Alabama on December 8, 2016, spent 22 years on death row. He was convicted of capital murder for the 1994 slaying of a convenience store clerk. Smith was 45 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Smith ate fried chicken and french fries.

John Wayne Conner

John Wayne Conner, who was executed in Georgia on July 15, 2016, spent 34 years on death row. He was convicted of murder for beating a friend to death during a drunken argument. Conner was 60 years old at the time of his execution by lethal injection. For his last meal, Conner requested 10 pieces of fried catfish, 10 hushpuppies, two triple deluxe hamburgers with bacon, two pints of vanilla ice cream and a sliced raw onion.

James Freeman

James Freeman, who was executed in Texas on January 27, 2016, spent 7 years on death row. He was sentenced to death for the 2007 murder of a Texas game warden, after being caught illegally hunting. He was 35 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. 

For his last meal, Freeman had a pepper steak with brown gravy, steamed rice, mixed greens, a vegetable blend, black-eyed peas, sliced bread, chocolate cake with butter icing, and a choice of water, tea or punch. He is believed to have drunk the punch.

Adam Ward

Adam Ward, who was executed in Texas on March 22, 2016, spent 8 years on death row. He was convicted for the 2005 murder of a city worker who was photographing large piles of trash outside his Texas home. Ward was 33 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection, despite his lawyers’ arguments that he suffered from mental illness and should thus be granted a stay. 

For his last meal, Ward had beef soft tacos, salsa, Spanish rice, mixed greens, corn, refried beans, flour tortillas and a choice of tea, punch or water.

Gregory Paul Lawler

Gregory Paul Lawler, who was executed in Georgia on October 19, 2016, spent 16 years on death row for the 1997 killing of a police officer. He was 63 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Lawler requested a ribeye steak, a baked potato with sour cream, asparagus, dinner rolls with butter, French onion soup, strawberries, pistachio ice cream, milk and apple juice.

Barney Ronald Fuller Jr.

Barney Ronald Fuller Jr., who was executed in Texas on October 5, 2016, spent 12 years on death row for a 2003 shooting spree that left a neighbor couple dead. The couple’s son survived two gunshot wounds and their daughter escaped injury because Fuller was reportedly unable to turn on the light in her bedroom.

Fuller was 53 years old at the time of his death and was executed via lethal injection. For his last meal, Fuller had salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, pinto beans, sliced bread, pear crisp and a choice of water, tea or punch to drink.