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Edition: paper, 80 pages
Dimensions: 6x6
Jacquelyn C. Black has created a powerful book of more than 60 photographs, focused on death row inmates and what they chose as their last meal before being executed. Combined with last words of the condemned, each left and right set of pages features a photo of the person and what they ate. Focused on inmates in Texas, among the photos and meals is that of Karla Faye Tucker.
Some apologize for their crimes. Others cling to a claim of innocence. Background information such as education level and job at the time of arrest is often included, making the book an eerily disturbing work. Information about the death penalty is sprinkled through the book, from statistics on countries with the highest number of executions (the U.S ranks third, ahead of Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia). The sparse nature of the statistics and text leaves the photos of Last Meal to create a powerful emotional reaction.
Praise
“…last meal is a menu of disgust: a sure way of putting you off your daily fare of judicial murder. But it contains some essential morsels of moral nourishment, and also anticipates the more wholesome regimen that is within our reach.” --Christopher Hitchens
“This is a book more about life than death, more about the innate goodness of man, rather than the evil. I wept as I scanned its pages, and thanked the powers that be that I, too, did not join them in a desperate time. It’s a thin line, ever, that divides us.” --Gerry Spence
“This book is a powerful, and disturbing, but accurate portrayal of the irony of a last meal, before the State executes its citizens. It portrays the hypocrisy of a system that grant a final, modest wish, and then takes life away. Perhaps this display will generate further debate on the barbaric system of capital punishment in America. --Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Jesse Climenko Professor, Harvard Law School.
"This powerful and disturbing book gives invaluable insight into the inhumanity of the death penalty, while providing a snapshot of the humanity and individuality of those on death row. Jacquelyn Black’s work is a stark and potent reminder of the brutality of capital punishment how, by imposing death upon fellow human beings, we negate the sanctity of life." --Liz Garbus, Oscar-Nominated Director of THE FARM and THE EXECEUTION OF WANDA JEAN.
“…last meal is a menu of disgust: a sure way of putting you off your daily fare of judicial murder. But it contains some essential morsels of moral nourishment, and also anticipates the more wholesome regimen that is within our reach.” 